Ficlets
by MD14
Summary: So I used to fill prompts on tumblr that were never published here. The grand majority of these were written pre-season 4, and are not things I've written recently. But I hope that if they are unfamiliar to you, you enjoy them.
1. Proposing Proposal Marriage

Prompt: How about Sam trying to think of a way to propose to Andy bc he doesn't wanna not be with her ever again. He doesn't wanna make it a big thing bc that's not his style, but at the same time he does bc she loves weddings... Too cheesy?

Prompt: I just read your little snippet about Sam asking Oliver for advice about proposing to Andy. First off, love it! Anyway, I was wondering if you could write about the actual proposal. Thanks!

Prompt: Will you write one based on this line? "but knowing Oliver, he's saving it for the best man toast." (Is that what you mean by official?) Theres a serious lack of actual wedding fics

* * *

"I just don't want to make it a big thing."

"Brother, it is a big thing. You, eternal bachelor, popping the big question, it's huge." Oliver argues, sitting back down on the couch.

oliver's been coming over a lot since it's a little too much trouble for sam to be going out. a month out of the hospital, and it's still a big day just going to physiotherapy.

"It isn't. I just-" He takes a breath, really taking a pause to see if it's worth it to open up to Oliver right now, or if he'll never hear the end of it. To this day the guy hasn't said much about his confession at the cabin, but knowing Oliver, he's saving it for the best man toast.

Sam licks his lips and opens his mouth to prompt himself to spit it out, but Oliver jumps in first.

"You don't want to make it a big deal, don't. You two have fought tooth and nail to get here man. The moment will be special because it's the right person."

Sam stares at his buddy, a smirk ready to break lose, and he's prepared to give him hell for the for typically sage and idealist Shaw advice, but then they hear a key in the front door and freeze.

"Just do it, and do it soon."

* * *

"Andy." He whispers, kissing the soft spot just behind her ear. "Nally, sweetheart, wake up."

She opens one eye, notices that the bedroom is still bathed in darkness, and lets it close, waiting for a better offer.

"C'mon, you need to get up." He whispers, moving his kisses up to her jaw, and she begins to move her head so that they're mouth to mouth. This she could wake up for. But just as she's beginning to respond, turn in his arms a little more, and attempts to slide beneath him, he's gone.

The bed is cold, and he's up over by the dresser. She takes the opportunity to look around the still dark room. Clock says it's four AM. There's no fire, he doesn't need medical attention, so she can't figure out why they're up at this ungodly hour.

He opens one of the bottom drawers and fishes around in there for a while, and bangs around. She hears a box open and close. Hears him put it back in the drawer and slam it shut.

She's expecting him to crawl back into bed, and explain to her why they're awake, and not...

She wants to know what's going on.

But he stays turned away from her, facing the dresser. He drops his head and she can hear him muttering to herself, and slowly concern washes over her.

"Sam?"

She watches his shoulders relax as he exhales, and in one smooth motion he walks back over to the edge of her side of the bed. He crouches there, and she scoots over as close as she can, waiting for him to say something anything.

He rests his fore arm on the mattress and hides the bottom of his face behind it, eyes still on her, like he's contemplating something.

"Sam..."

He pushes back a little, and repositions his legs so that he's kneeling there now, and he opens his fist to show her what he was searching for.

In it, is a small and modest diamond ring.

"Marry me." He says, searching her eyes for some indication of what her answer might be.

She smiles, and relaxes, not believing that he woke her up at four in the morning for this, but she smiles, because it's so, them. Spur of the moment, things are right. He just had to take advantage of this feeling.

"Yes." She laughs, grabbing his face between her hands, before even inspecting her new jewellery. "Yes."

He kisses her, kind of a toothy smile, neither one can stop grinning, and once he's satisfied that she's not going to suddenly tell him she's kidding, he grabs her hand and slips the ring on.

"I'm gonna love you forever." He decides, knowing that she's all he ever needed.

"Good plan."

"Great pan, actually."

* * *

Oliver stood from his seat at the wedding party's table, and gently tapped his knife against his champagne glass, trying to get a little attention before he began.

While the din in the room faded slowly, he took a look at the newlywed couple, who were sitting shoulder to shoulder, hands laced together on the table, and smiling up at him, probably without even knowing it.

"I say this as a friend, who loves these two very deeply..." He starts, addressing only them really, but the microphone is right there, so... "You guys really are disgusting."

The crowd laughs and he watches Andy roll her eyes just a little, but chuckle as well, and Sam has an amused expression playing on his face, ready to see where this is going.

"I mean, smiling, stealing kisses. You two have had some of the biggest blow outs in the history of relationships, and you've got me here, gagging, wishing for those days again." Oliver can't help but laugh at himself, because everyone knows they're all much better off like this.

Sam raises his eyebrows, silently warning his friend to get on with it, so while he waits for the catcalls and laughs to die down, he clears his throat and puts on a more serious front.

"In all honesty though, you two have fought hard to get here. Against, for and despite each other. And that's what a real relationship is. That's what true love is, actually.

You met, hated each other, and slowly, we all got to watch this bond form. We didn't really know what to make of it at first. For awhile there, I thought you just caught his eye McNally. We watched it change from a partnership, to a friendship, to a relationship to love. And back again."

The subtle reminder that their separation had caused some major rifts in not only their relationship, but the lives of many people in this room today. Oliver being one of them.

"You knocked him off his feet Andy. Day one, you just took him down. It took him awhile, but he learned how to sweep you off yours. And the minute I knew this day would come, was the day Sammy went off talking about kids, and parks on Saturdays-"

"Sundays." Sam says, just loud enough that he could hear him. He looks to his friend, and watched Andy turn to him as well, with so much love and wonder in her eyes.

"Sundays." Oliver concedes, smiling out to their friends and family. "That's the day I started thinking about this moment, and what I would tell you two."

Sam's busy pressing a kiss to the back of his brides hand, but Oliver turns to them anyway.

"Relationships should be hard work some times. If they aren't, you're not doing it right. That being said, there should be ease too. An ease in the way your lives come together. Ying and yang, and all that."

There's a bit of laughter, and Oliver takes a pause to look out to Celery with a little wink.

"After seeing all that the two of you have overcome and the life you've made together, I'd say you're doing it right. You'll still get on each others' nerves, or be at others' throats. Andy will go crying to Traci or Gail and Sammy, you'll end up on my couch more than once, I can guarantee you that. But you'll never be better off apart."

While people laugh when he began, now there are a few stray 'awe's' going through the crowd.

"I have no doubt that you two will make it. You two have always proven that you're strongest together. In every partnership, in every sense. To the happy couple."

He raises his glass, and watches out of the corner of his eye as they raise _their_ glasses to him.


	2. Baby Sam

Prompt: the one where andy finds the pic of baby sam (the one ben tweeted, f**king tumblr won't let me post the link) and gushes over it. then she accidentally says something about how if they have a boy he'll probably look like that. except-they haven't even talked about kids. and sam has this stupidly idiotic grin on his face at the thought that she wants kids with him b/c HE'S AN IDIOT

This pic of Ben.

/BenBassOfficial/status/386909322073997312/photo/1

"Oh nooooo!" She laughs from his bedroom. He's slaving away in the kitchen over their steak dinner, and she's been wandering around with her wine, checking to see if anything has really changed since she'd been there last.

They've been staying at her place since they decided that staying over was in the cards. They were taking it slow this time. It's been two months, but this is only the second week that they've been. Well, yeah.

"What're you doing McNally?" He calls, suspecting that she's up to something, and found something that maybe isn't usually left out.

He hears her chuckle get closer, and she appears in the kitchen next to him in no time at all, hands behind her back.

"C'mon, what is it, what'd you find?" He asks, a little nervous, and a lot certain that she's going to tease him for a while.

She grins, and pulls the photo out from behind her and holds it up in front of her face. "You were adorable!"

He pulls it out of her hands and grimaces at the old picture she's found of him. His long hair, stupid smile, big teeth. He puts it face down on the counter behind him, dismissing the picture, and wanting her to know he doesn't really want to hear her tease him for a few hours.

"I'm framing this and taking it home! Oh my god! You know what I'm going to do?" She asks, as she reaches for it again. She runs down the hallway toward his bedroom again before she can finish that thought.

Seconds later after rummaging around in what he thinks must've been her purse, she runs back in with a small wallet sized picture of her as a kid on her dads lap.

"I'm gonna scan them, and put them through one of those programs that shows you what your baby would look like." She says, smiling down at both of the images in her hands.

He doesn't think she knows what she just said or implied, but he stands there silently and looking at both of their pictures and thinks. _Their baby_.

"I hope they get your dimples, you were so cute. They were so little and shallow." She sighs, pressing her finger up against the one in the photograph.

He stares at the side of her head and tucks her under his arm, and she slips one around his waist, still staring away. Pressing a kiss to her temple he starts to imagine doe eyed and dimpled babies crawling around these floors one day.

"My eyebrows though. Definitely my eyebrows."


	3. First Halloween

Prompt: Sam/Andy and their first Halloween with their kid. Dressing him up. :')) GO

* * *

Sam walked into the house an hour later than he'd expected to. Halloween, lots of crazy going on in the city, and it's a miracle Andy got the day off, and he was getting away on time.

He threw his briefcase on the kitchen counter before taking off up the staircase to find his wife and son. And when he rounded the corner of the nursery's doorway, he sees Andy struggling to get Seamus into his lion costume.

"No sweetie, don't cry, mama just needs your arm… to go… through here…. there we go. That was easy wasn't it baby? Wasn't it? Good boy." She laughs, scooping him up and blowing a raspberry on his covered tummy. But the baby squeals away anyhow.

Sam approaches her, and wraps his arms around her waist, staring at their son with his chin resting lightly on her shoulder. She's not even surprised that he's there suddenly. Years of being watched gave her a sixth sense to detect it.

Sam brings up one hand and pokes his sons nose, causing the kid to laugh and squeal all over again.

"Sorry I'm late." He says, kissing Andy on the cheek.

"It's okay, we were running behind anyway. _Someone_ got very splashy in his bath this afternoon." She says setting Seamus back down on the change table to start buttoning up his yellow little onesie. Seamus rolls a little on his back and begins blabbering and sucking on his fingers and kicking his legs. "Can you grab the head?"

Sam looks around the room and spots the tiny little cap for Seamus' head, complete with a mane.

He hands it to Andy, she places it on his head, waiting until he stops making a face to know the it's comfortable for him, and then straps it under his chin.

"Now my handsome boy is all ready!" Andy says excitedly, picking him up again and holding him above her.

"Boys. Both of your handsome boys." Sam teases, reaching for Seamus, wanting some quality time with him in his costume. "I can't believe this is the costume you chose."

"Hey! You said you liked it!" She argues, grabbing his carrier out from under the table, and getting ready to bring it with them downstairs.

"I do. Something for him to aspire to. Be just like mommy."


	4. Bulletproof Weeks

Prompt **:** "We'd open your window Stay in your bed All day 'til the street lights came on"

"We should get up." Sam says quietly, continuing to hold Andy tight against his chest.

He feels her nod against him, and yet another tear fall against his shirt, so he rubs her back, long, all the way up her spine and down again.

"Yeah." She sniffles, clutching him tighter. "We should."

They'd been like that for hours. All night, all morning. It was 1pm, and they could hear the active neighborhood outside, people mowing their lawns and walking their dogs. But they just stayed there wrapped up in each other.

It had been 24 hours now since the funeral. Since they put another fellow officer in the ground. Officer James Bell, shot down in the line of duty. He was on different shifts than both of them most of the time. In fact neither one of them had ever been partnered with him.

But it was more the idea of death that kept them paralyzed and trapped in sadness, then the loss of this particular life. For Andy it was the fresh reminder that Sam had recently escaped that faith. He kept thinking about how it could all too easily be her one day. Or him, again.

This time he knew what to do though. This time he didn't run scared, this time, he held her close. Until she didn't want him to any more. This time everything was the way it should have been before.

"You hungry?" He asks, continuing to smooth his hand along her back, under her shirt to feel her warmth.

"No." She whispers.

He doesn't push it. They'll eat soon enough.

He looks to the bedside table to look at the alarm clock, and somehow four hours have passed. The street outside is growing darker, and quieting down.


	5. Leo Traci

Prompt: Traci and Leo ficlet? A heart-to-heart or nice little moment with them talking

Leo was sitting at his desk, slaving away over some math homework when his mom knocked on the door and poked her head through.

"Hey honey, how's it going?" She asks, letting herself in and looking over his shoulder to make sure he was actually doing his work. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Yeah, okay." Leo says, dropping his pencil, and swivelling his chair around to face Traci who perched herself on his bed.

"I just wanted to know, if you're okay, with… everything." She states, vaguely, hoping to just get a feeler out before asking the harder questions.

"Do you mean am I okay with you dating Steve?" He asks, knowing his mom too well.

"Well, no… yes." She admits, deciding that getting to the point might be better after all.

Leo loved Jerry, almost as much as Dex and he didn't hide that. Jerry was everything that made his mom happy, and he was happy she was happy. Jerry didn't just treat him like baggage that came with his girlfriend. Jerry respected him and kept away from their private matters until someone asked him directly. Jerry was there for them both, loved them both.

Losing him was so hard. Mostly because he had to watch his mom suffer through it, and also because he couldn't fully grasp it himself.

"Yeah, I like Steve." He says non-commitally, but smiles for Traci. And it's true, he does. He's just not sure he's ready to get attached to someone who might just be gone one night. "I mean, I've only met him a couple times."

"Yeah, no, that's true." She nods, looking around his room. She stops when she notices a framed picture of him and Jerry on his bookshelf. "You know, we're taking things slow. I'm not in any rush here. He's not ever going to replace Jerry."

Leo nods, knowing that she's right and agreeing.

"I know. I'm just happy you're happy."

"Thanks baby."


	6. High School AU

Prompt: Do an au Sam and Andy in high school

* * *

It was like a ton of bricks. He didn't see it coming. He was just trying to open his locker while Barber talked his ear off about the freshman crop this year, and then before he knew it he was on the ground.

Thud.

Whatever's on top of him is lighter than he would've expected, because the contact was hard. But he feels a sharp hip bone on his leg, and when he opens his eyes it's a fresh faced girl, with big brown apologetic doe eyes hovering over him. Freshman, he guesses.

She jumps off of him quickly, and he feels Jerry tug him up from under his arms, and then he's on his feet in front of her.

She's cute. In a naive freshman kind of way.

"I am _so_ sorry." She gushes, cheeks beginning to go red. She looks as though she's about to lean in and straighten his leather jacket before she stops herself and starts to stammer again. "I was on my way to class, and you stepped back I didn't even have time to move, like, seriously, so sorry."

She's already taking off again before Sam can say a word, or forgive her.

"Seriously man these freshman, get stupider every year." Jerry says, loudly, causing the girl to turn back and look over her shoulder. She makes another apologetic face before putting her head down and continuing on her way. Sam feels bad now, and gives Jerry a well deserved sucker punch to the gut.

"Shit man!" He groans, doubling over and leaning against the lockers. "I wasn't done, I was gonna say the girls get better looking!"

Sam just chuckles, feeling a little better about the whole incident altogether, and grabs his ratty copy of Moby Dick out of the bottom of his locker before slamming it shut. He gives Jerry a gentle shove before starting off on his way to English, and eventually Jerry catches up and throws him into a headlock.

"Careful buddy…" Sam warns, yanking himself out of it. "You'll muss up your oxford shirt."

Sam chuckles, jogging ahead, realizing they were alone in the halls, and he really doesn't want detention on the first day of his senior year.

"My mom made me wear it!"


	7. Deckstein

Prompt: Deckstein. I don't even know what I was going to say after this. But anything Deckstein would be amaze. kthnxbye

* * *

"You're holding her wrong!" Gail scoffed as she walked passed Dov and into the living room where Chris and Dov had been fussing over Olivia. She'd been crying, no, screaming,for twenty minutes now, and finally Gail couldn't take it anymore.

"How would you even know? When was the last time you let a… what was it? 'Sticky spoiled monster' near you?" He bit back, patience running extremely low.

She made a face at him and reached across them for one of her magazines, before laying back on the couch and flipping through it casually.

"You're seriously just going to sit there and not help?" He asks, now trying to soothe her by bouncing her on his knee.

"Frank didn't ask me to watch her. And actually, he didn't even ask you. Where's Chris?" She wonders aloud, just now realizing that he was absent.

"In his room, calling Denise, see if she's got any tips." He sighs. Just as he stops bouncing her, she sounds as though she might be done, but just as he's ready to relax and let out a breath of relief, she starts crying all over again. Maybe even louder.

"Well did you try-"

"Yes."

"But you didn't even-"

"Yes."

"Dov-"

"We tried everything Gail, everything." He nearly yells. Olivia's so far gone that it wouldn't even matter at this point.

Gail takes him by surprise by lifting the baby out of his arms and walking briskly too the kitchen, not even trying to soothe or sway. Just travelling with purpose and determination.

Dov follows a few feet behind, relishing in the silence of the living room, but not quite trusting that Gail won't find a casserole dish to stick her in.

As he walks in, Gail's going to turn the stove fan on, and he whines that he can't take any excess noise right now, that his head is about to explode. But then something amazing happens. Olivia stops crying.

"How… did… what?" He wonders, though he didn't really mean to voice it.

"I did a lot of babysitting for the kids across the street." She shrugs, bouncing and shifting her weight from foot to foot.

"But you hate…" He trails off, realizing now that as usual, she's not as frosty as she seems.

Olivia begins to relax, and eventually smile and lean into Gail, having tuckered herself out.

"They're not _all_ sticky spoiled monsters."

Dov watches on as Olivia wraps Gails finger in her little grip, and Gail smile back at the baby, forming a little bit of a bond.

Chris comes in behind Dov very slowly, and before he catches the sight he's starting to ask if Gail stuck her in the stove.

"Oh. Denise just told me… How did she…" He begins, turning to face Dov.

"I don't really know."


	8. Not This Month

Prompt: Because Im a sadist, what about Sam and Andy trying for a kid but she gets that time of the month again

Three minutes.

That's not really a long time. Not a long time at all. Not when it's noted she's been thinking about these three minutes for two weeks. Two weeks of waiting for mother nature to leave her monthly gift and receiving nothing.

Three minutes.

It's not a long time.

She doesn't even leave the bathroom when she's done. Just pulls up her boy shorts and lowers the toilet lid and sits back down. One thumbnail trapped securely between her teeth, pulling gently to distract from the thoughts circling her mind.

Sam is downstairs right now. Making coffee.

Which she won't be able to drink, of, course if the tests come up positive.

She scratches at her neck briefly, and then smoothes out the strap of her singlet, and releases a big huff. She flicks her wrist over and peaks at her watch, just quickly, even though she's been counting down in her head.

Two more minutes.

She can't sit there for two more minutes, she just can't.

So she gets up.

On her way down the stairs she can hear the coffee maker going, and bacon frying in the pan and Sam's listening to the news on the radio, scoffing when they mention the murder case he's helping investigate and how there are no leads.

"We've got leads, we just can't tell the media, stupid, fuc-"

"Hey." She says, cutting off his mutter.

He looks over his shoulder from where he stands at the stove and offers her a small grin, shakes off his frustration with work. Suddenly she's aware of how little she's wearing, and how drafty the house is this morning, and she slides up behind Sam and winds her arms around his waist and rest them on his stomach.

"Not that I'm complaining, but where are your pyjama pants Mrs. Swarek?" He smiles, placing one of his hands over hers, playing with her diamond.

She presses her face between his shoulder blades and places a kiss on his shirt, not saying anything just yet. He keeps at scrambling the eggs, while she uses his body heat to warm back up and then she thinks about the possible little life she might be incubating right now.

He notices when her hands stop moving over his abdomen, and he turns off the burners, wipes his hands on the dish rag and turns in her hold. She tilts her chin up at him, and offers a small smile.

"What's wrong?" He asks, a little worried with the preoccupied look on her face.

When his hands run up her arms soothingly, she remembers that there isn't much to actually be afraid of. This is the best man she's ever known, the warmest, most loving home she could've ever dreamed of for her future children...

This was all going to be okay.

"I just took a pregnancy test." She smiles, swallowing the lump in her throat and holding onto him a little tighter.

The slow smile that pulls at the corners of his mouth overwhelm her when she remembers their kid will probably have a matching pair of dimples.

"Yeah?" He asks, eyes warm and wide, big hands framing her shoulder, separating them to look at her stomach.

"I haven't checked it yet, but... it's ready, upstairs."

She feels out for one of his hands, still a little nervous.

"Wow." He says, exhaling a large lung full of air. "I know we talked about it, but this, is _now_."

"I know." She smiles, squeezing his hand a little. "Wanna come upstairs and check?"

He nods, wordlessly, a little desperate.

"We might be having a baby." She reminds him, big smile taking over, her feet making the first move to the staircase.

"Yeah, we might. But hey," He says, tugging her hand, bringing her back to him quickly. "If we aren't, we just keep trying right?"

It slowly dawns her that, through all this fear and waiting, it could be a false alarm... but he's right. It just means they keep trying.

"Yeah, yeah, we will."


	9. After the Reception

Prompt - the car ride in between the reception and the hotel/airport, their first real moment alone since being married

* * *

They were in the backseat of the town car that they drove from the wedding to the reception, and from the reception and now on their way to the airport, when Sam and Andy finally relaxed. She's pretty sure they'd be doing elicit things in the backseat _again_ if they weren't ready to pass out. Throwing a wedding was exhausting.

She did try to talk him out of it…

 _("Why can't we just elope, or go to the courthouse?" She had whined, collapsing on the bed after another unsuccessful day of dress shopping._

 _"Because after the big build up that has been our relationship, Oliver needs this public, expensive affair to know he can stop worrying about us.")_

One very long sentence, and she saw his point. They kind of owed everyone a party after all they'd put up with over the years.

"Sam…" She says, looking up at her _husband_ from where her head was rested on his shoulder.

He was running his fingers through her hair, just completely content to be alone with her, and hmm-ed in response.

"We're… _married_."

He chuckles and tilts down to drop a kiss on her lips, and gives her nose a playful nudge.

"Don't tell me you wanna back out _now_." He laughs.

She shakes her head and kisses him again before dropping back into her resting position.

"Ever think, from that first day, that we'd be here?"

"You mean, did I think I was going to marry the rookie who tackled me and tried to kiss me. I always kinda knew _you_ might want to, you found me irresistible…" He jokes, bringing all that back up again.

"Shut up." She says, before slapping his chest lightly.

"No, I didn't think we'd ever end up here." Sam admits, remembering his fury with her that first day. She was just a rook. "But I'm sure glad we did."


	10. Detective Swarek

Prompt: Sam/Andy working a case together and the topic of why Sam became a detective comes up and Andy's like 'oh I think I know why' (so that he could get info on her and Nick when they were UC) + Sam just wanting to protect her + also Sam needing to fill the detective work Jerry couldn't finish.

* * *

"I still can't believe you'd rather sit here doing paperwork than ride around all day." Andy laughs, grabbing the Chinese takeout carton of his desk and popping a dumpling into her mouth.

He laughs along with her, and puts his pen down to lean back in his seat for a quick moment.

"Oh yeah, foot patrols, speed traps, dealing with drunks every weekend… it's a luxurious life." He teases.

She laughs too, mouth full of dumpling, and kicks her feet up to rest on his desk.

"Admit it, you miss riding with me." She says, once she's swallowed her food.

He opens his mouth to say something, and stops himself, catching Andy's attention right away.

"What?"

He presses his lips together and closes his eyes, planning how to say what he wants to say very carefully.

"Sometimes yes." He concedes, looking at her, seeing how it's being taken. She cocks her head to the side a little, wanting to see where he's going with it. "I loved being your partner for a long time, but… when we finally got together, the stakes were higher. I had to fight a little harder to make sure you'd come home."

Andy still has a puzzled expression on her face, but like maybe she sees that being the trouble magnet she was and sometimes still is, he got scared, and stressed.

"It got to the point where I couldn't do my job properly. I did mean it when I told you I couldn't be a cop and be with you. So while you were gone, I took Jerry's place. You know, another reason I took the job. I wanted to finish what he started. I didn't trust anyone else to do it."

Andy brings her feet down from the desk and looks like she's refraining from jumping in, so he takes a pause, and stares at her until she does.

"But you… you moved on…"

"You left. For a while I buried myself in becoming a detective, finding out what I could about what you were doing undercover. But at the end of the day I wasn't moving forward. And when it finally sunk in that you had, I felt like I had to let go."

Andy looks shocked, and surprised, which he guesses she should. It's the first time he's really explaining his side thoroughly. He gives her a sympathetic and apologetic look. They were both responsible for that mess. The miscommunication, thinking the other one was moving forward, trying to move forward before they'd really let go.

She gives him a weak smile, and puts the box of dumplings back on his desk.

"It's different, but I would never trade going home with you for being partners." He says, hoping that takes a little of the weight off both their shoulders.

And when she grins it does.


	11. Gilmore Girls

Prompt: Will you please please write Andy watching Gilmore Girls, maybe Sam with her or comes home to it or something?

* * *

"Is it weird that the fictional character I associate most with you is named Luke?" Andy asks, kicking her foot up into the newspaper Sam was invested in, and then rests it politely in his hold again.

"Yeah, that's a little sick McNally." He murmurs, straightening the crinkled pages and returning to his article. Andy stares at him for a moment before turning back to the TV.

It's a few minutes later that she speaks again, pulling him away from the article.

"Well actually you're more like a cross between Luke and Jess. If they were one man, it'd be you. Cause you know, Luke's outdoors-y and you're not. Luke Danes that is. Not my... yeah." She covers, not wanting to relive any of that right now.

She looks up to him sheepishly, and he folds his newspaper and tosses it onto the coffee table. She thinks this going to turn into another 'Andy don't interrupt me when I'm reading' talks, but instead, he pulls her by the ankles so that her knees are over his lap and she's tucked into his side.

He looks at her for a moment before turning his attention to the screen, deciding to watch whatever it is she's going on about.

"And I'd never run a _diner_. And who's Jess again?" He asks after a few minutes have gone by, and he's seen which characters she's chattering about.

"His punk nephew." She mumbles, fully invested in the show now.

"That kid? You think I'm like that kid?!" He remarks, clearly disagreeing. Andy laughs and cuddles a little closer, not having meaning to offend him.

"Yeah. Leather jackets, classic novels... same quippy and sarcastic humour that only one girl finds charming..."

"The only thing I can connect to me and that Luke guy is that we both have head cases for girlfriends." He scoffs, and she hears the grumpy creeping into his voice.

"And we love coffee. Lorelai and I looooove coffee." She says, not really absorbing Sam's words.

"Stop it."

"Stop what?"

"Talking about them like they're real."

"They are real. In here." She says, grabbing his hand and moving it to where her heart should be, in its protective cavity in her chest.

"You're a freak."

"You talk to me just like Luke talks to Lorelai. You must love me or something." She says, twisting her neck to look up at him, hoping he takes the cue.

"Yeah, or something." He smiles, keeping his eyes on the screen.


	12. Jraci's Wedding

Prompt: do sam and andy at traci and jerrys wedding if it had actually happen

* * *

"And now the bride and groom's first dance." Oliver announces to small hall of people who were able to make the trip to see the wedding.

Sam and Andy turned away from their dinner companions at the wedding party's table to face the dance floor where Traci and Jerry were dancing closely. Andy leaned forward, resting her chin and hands on Sam's shoulders, and slowly wrapped herself around him, gazing happily at her best friend and new husband.

"She looks beautiful." Andy whispers. It was no secret that she was in love with Traci's dress. Might have let it slip that she might just use it too.

"Not as pretty as Jerry." Sam smiles, leaning back just a little only so she can hear. She fights a smile and hides her face in his neck for a short minute before kissing him there and looking back to the dance floor.

"So was it worth it?" Andy whispers again, not able to stay quiet.

"Was what worth it?"

"The flight. You know, the invasive security check, lack of space in your seat, joining the mile high club-"

"Shh!" He cuts in, knowing Epstein probably isn't too far out of ear shot. The kid never is. "Yes, now cut it out."

"Huh." She smiles, cockily. "Wouldn't have made you for shy."

He laughs with her this time and turns towards her, looking at her completely content smile. She's been very stressed out the last couple of days, helping Traci get everything in order, but this is the payoff. Here, enjoying it, happy for their best friends, and just happy in general.

"Yes." He says once Traci and Jerry's dance is finished and they're sharing a quick kiss before inviting everyone else to join them.

"Hm?" She mumbles, looking at him curiously as he rises to his feet, and pulls at her hand until she's standing too.

"It was worth it." He says, dragging her onto the dance floor.


	13. Old Pictures

Prompt: Can you do a ficlet where Sam stumbles upon the pictures of Andy (Missy) modeling? She's so pretty. I bet he'd have a great reaction to them.

* * *

"Andy are they even in here?" Sam calls from Andy's closet, on the hunt for the home movies her mom gave her a year ago.

She'd been meaning to sit down and watch them, but there was something inside of her telling her it'd be hard. So she put it off, and then her life went up in smoke, and she kind of… forgot.

It wasn't until Sam asked her last week if there was anything on them that would make him question what their kids would be like that she even remembered she had them.

"Yes! They might be in a box… just start digging." She yells, continuing to prepare snacks for their viewing pleasure.

He starts with a shoe box sitting on her shelf and takes it over to her bed where he sits down to open it, and when he does, he gets a surprise.

Andy on a beach… with a lot of makeup… in a few different bathing suits…

"Andy…" He calls again, wanting to know the full story here. The prints look professionally photographed, but he can't imagine why she'd want pictures of herself to keep in a box in her closet.

There's one of her at the water's edge, knees in the sand, legs apart, fisting at her own shirt, and he wonders if maybe her secret past isn't so boring.

"Yeah," She says, coming into the room and spotting what he's found. She looks a little embarrassed but just smiles, shaking her head. "I forgot I kept those."

"What are they?" He asks, holding one up in his hand.

"I did a little modeling after college… just something to do on the side for when I wasn't making the rent." She shrugs. She had a roommate that got her into it, and it wasn't too glamorous either. She did a lot of hand modeling…

"You… you were a model?" He stutters, looking back to the photo.

"Just for a couple of years." She states, wanting to make it clear that he won't be finding her pictures in magazines.

She watches him absorb the news and flip through a few more of the prints before putting them back and turning to her.

"I'm going to need wallet-sized copies of all of these." He says, face dead serious.

She rolls her eyes and goes to her closet, knowing that Sam's completely forgotten their search.

"C'mon, just in case I run into guys I went to high school with!"


	14. Setting Records

Promptless

* * *

It's going to start in half an hour, and I still have to shower." Andy says, running for Sam's truck the minute she gets out of the stations doors, and out into the spring air.

Showering at the end of her long day was one of her favorite parts of going home. There was nothing more refreshing. He's a little puzzled as to how something else could be more important.

"C'mon Sam, please!"

He walks at the same steady pace he's kept all night, just wanting to drive her that much crazier. He'll make up for it once they're on the road, but for now, he just wants to torment her.

"Andy, you already set it up to record, it'll keep." He says, keeping his frustration up as much as he can, but it's not working so well. She just looks like she wants to run back and drag him faster than he's already moving.

"Sam, please. Humor me." She asks, sincerely pleading, bottom lip worried a little.

He notices Nash and Peck walking toward Nash's car together, watching the couple curiously, but also keeping their prompt pace.

When their eyes meet, Traci tugs Gail toward the car, more sharply than intended, and Gail lets out a choice curse.

He can't remember which one of her shows starts up again tonight, but he feels like she's been talking about it nonstop for a month. And clearly it's a big deal among the rookies, at least the female rookies.

"Oh c'mon, you know the only reason you're even doing this at my place is because it's closer than yours." He says, throwing his bag in to the backseat, as she clicks herself into the passenger seat.

Once he's pulled himself into his seat, and chances a look her way, she's got this sickly sweet look.

"And my PVR is broken. And because you make the best cheddar popcorn." She places her hand carefully on his knee. "And who else will make cynical comments that'll ruin the whole thing?"

"Gee McNally, I don't know. How'd you get so lucky?" He teases, tamping down a big grin, while she's fighting one of her own.

"I have no idea." She says, unable to hold her giant grin back. While he sits there and studies her mega watt smile, taking a mental picture if you will, when she makes one final impatient face at him.

He turns the key in the ignition.

She grabs the keys out of his hand the minute he steps out of the truck ten minutes later. He barely catches what she says about having to shower and could he please grab her bag too, but he would've done it anyway.

By the time he climbs the steps and walks through the open door, the shower is already running hot, and her clothes have formed a bread crumb trail from the door to the bathroom.

He drops both of their bags by his bedroom door before slowly making his way to the bathroom, he picked up and folded her clothes as he went, leaving the completed pile neatly on his bed.

He digs out her favorite shirt of his, and a pair of old sleeping boxers, and walks into the bathroom to leave them on the vanity. The smell of her body wash hits him, and he suddenly wonders when and where she started to keep it around here, but mostly he's just warmed and soothed by it. Caramel apples invade his senses.

"Sam?" She calls, not bothering to move the curtain that separated them.

"Yeah?"

"How much time do I have left?" She asks, panic evident in her voice.

He chuckles, can't believe that for a second he thought he might be getting an invitation. But hey, it's his shower, he doesn't need one.

"Uh, fifteen minutes?" He guesses, when she doesn't inquire about his laugh.

His head snaps to the rustling of the shower curtain, where her face has now appeared, little smile creeping across her lips.

"Popcorn ready to go?"

He shakes his head, and reminds her that'll take two minutes, and if the show starts without him, he won't be heartbroken.

"Feel like setting a record?" She asks, eyebrow quirked high, bottom lip between her teeth. She opens the shower curtain even more, so he can see more than just her floating head, and suddenly his throat tightens.

For a minute Sam goes slack jawed, surprised that all this speed and haste, was merely so she could squeeze in a little shower time before the show. He'd wondered why she thought it'd be easier to skip her shower at the station…

But then he gets out of his head when she throws her luffa at him, and it hits him square in the chest. He bends down to pick it up, and greets her with a grin.

"I can do that."

He sheds his clothes in record time too.


	15. Proxy

Prompt: Sam's in surgery and doctor comes out looking for a 'Jerry Barber' - seems Sam never changed his health care proxy.

* * *

They kicked her out of the trauma room thirty minutes after she went in when they had to move him to the OR, and she was left there, with one nurse who was trying to talk her back to the waiting room.

The minute she got out there, Traci was ready and waiting, front and center, ready to sit with her for as long as she needed.

"He's in surgery." She mumbles, feeling for the first time that the situation was out of her mortal hands. Now that she isn't there overseeing him, anything could happen.

So Traci sits there, holding her hand, and all of sudden their transported back in time, waiting to hear if another beloved detective would live or die, but Andy's lucky because she still knows Sam has a chance..

Are Andy and Traci's lives going to parallel this constantly for as long as they live?

People get her coffee. A lot. When one cup is gone, it s immediately replaced. Gail gets her water, they're all just… there.

She has to excuse herself and go to the bathroom because she realizes that she's let the blood on her hands dry and it began flaking off onto the hospital floor as it dried. And all that coffee…

She's thankful now. She didn't even know she needed to be alone until she was. She feels free to let all her fear come out, and she lets herself hear a surgeon coming out and telling her they did what they could but they lost him. That she lost him. She tries to imagine losing him, for good. Never hearing him yell, or laugh, or tease again. And it's an emptier world. It's without life and purpose. It's one she can't fathom surviving.

But she pulls it together, because she knows she's not the only one afraid of that right now. Traci might lose another partner and mentor. Oliver might lose another best friend. She has to keep it together.

When she returns to the waiting room, there's a surgeon emerging from the swinging double doors as well, and she rushes past the sea of blue rising to their feet to be front and centre to hear what's going on.

"Sam Swarek I presume," he says quietly, looking back to his piece of paper after taking in the group of officers. "Sarah Swarek here?"

"No, she's on her way." Frank jumps in. Andy actually hadn't even thought of that until now…

"Okay, uh, Jerry Barber?"

The entire group holds their breath at once and all feel the sting. This waiting room, this waiting, it's all just repetition, life repeating itself.

"No." Andy says, hard, angry, she just wants to know whatever it is he has to say.

"Alright then, Andy McNally?" He says, going even further down his list.

"That's me." She says, still unimpressed with the man's tact. And it's not his fault, he has no idea that the man he's called out died a little over a year ago in this very building.

Her anger should be directed at Sam for not changing it, but that's senseless. She also feels relief that it's remained untouched, because she's still there too. She's still someone he trusts with his life.

"Okay you're his next health care proxy, so would you like to go somewhere private to discuss-"

"No."

"Okay then."


	16. Pulled Over

Prompt: You still looking for fluffy fluff? How about Sam & Andy get pulled over for speeding on the way to St. Catherines? I'll leave it up to you who's driving the truck. I'm leaning towards Andy though with maybe Sam waking up as she's talking to the nice RCMP.

* * *

The drive to Sarah's house, after a full day at the station, may not have been a good idea.

Sam did a twelve hour day, and Andy the standard ten, and neither were in a very social mood. Bed was on both of their minds, but of course, they had to make it to St. Catherine's before Sam's nieces were in bed themselves.

"I'll drive." Andy had said, knowing that Sam could really use the nap before having to pull out all the stops as exciting Uncle Sammy. He put up no fight, and kissed her out of gratitude, happy to be able to get some shut eye on the drive.

"Thank you." He had murmured, settling his jacket against the passenger side window to use as a pillow.

He was out like a light. In fact, lights were what woke him. For a brief moment the flashes of blue and red make him think that they haven't even pulled out of the lot yet, and he's about to groan in frustration that he couldn't even stay sleeping.

But then he hears Andy's shushed voice.

"Officer, I'm so so sorry about the speeding," She says, in a tone he doesn't even recognize.

Sam pops one eye open to watch silently, and see what the hell it is that she's up to. He sees her facing the cop with her whole upper body, and the officer has her license and his registration in his hands.

"Miss do you know how fast you were going?" The officer asks, taking Andy in, eyeing her up and down.

Andy giggles. Giggles, and shrugs her shoulders.

"Maybe ten kliks... kilometers over?" She "guesses". Sam wants to roll his eyes. Fucking RCMP pulling them over for ten kliks when as they speak there are assholes flying by them going nearly thirty over.

He pays attention to the way Andy is turned to the cop , and notices she's not wearing her jacket anymore. She liked to keep the truck cab warm, but he's not positive that it's warm enough for her to be down to a tank top.

He knows what she's doing, she's trying to flirt her way out of it. He's sure why though, if she revealed that she was a cop there'd be a good they'd be let off. But he's not going to interrupt whatever it is she's got going on, so he stays quiet and "sleeping".

"Twelve, miss." He says, firmly. Sam wants so badly to give this guy a piece of his mind, but he has to fight the urge.

"Is there any way you could just give me a warning officer? I mean, I swear I'll slow down, I've just never had a ticket." She says, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, and leaning a little more against the door, no doubt trying to better frame her cleavage.

He stares, not even glances or tries to cover it, but stares at his girlfriend, and Sam pinpoints the guys age to rookie.

"I. Uh. I guess I could... but you need to slow down."

"Yes _Officer_." She says, really drawing it the title like it's the most attractive profession.

She takes back her license and the registration and puts her window up, smiling to herself happily, until she looks over to Sam in the passenger seat.

"Oh my god, you're awake!?" She squeals, hiding her face in her hands.

"Yes _Officer_." Sam laughs, straightening up and grabbing the papers from her grasp.

"I just wanted to see if I could still flirt my way out of a ticket." She whines, turning the key in the ignition, restarting their journey.

Sam's chuckling away, certain that he won't be able to get back to sleep now


	17. Nap

Prompt: please write a small ficlet using this pic of the adorable Swarek children! Saw it and almost died! They would be the perfect little stubborn smart ass baby cops!

.

* * *

Andy satin the kitchen, flipping through one of the many cook books she's acquired in the last four years in the hopes that she'd find something to make for their trip to St Catherine's on the weekend. It had kind of become an unspoken competition between her and Sarah, who kind find the best recipe. Their bake offs soon became a family tradition that they all enjoyed, and showing up to Sarah's empty handed would be a travesty.

She was reading through the instructions on a gluten free banana bread recipe when she heard someone coming down the stairs. And soon enough, a pyjama clad Bella was standing by the fridge, rubbing the sleepies out of her eyes.

"Hey Bells, what're you doing, you're supposed to be having a nap." She says, staying where she is for the time being.

"Where's Noah?" She asks tiredly, the Noah sounding more like Doh-a. She's not completely with it just yet. Andy supposes this is what happens if you only nap for twenty minutes.

"Noah's having a nap too." Andy watches her daughter look around and smack her lips, trying to rid her mouth of that post-sleep yuckiness.

Eventually she toddles over to Andy's stool and tries to climb up her leg rather than asked to be picked up, but Andy leans down and brings her up anyhow, figuring Bella wouldn't make it too far on the amount of energy she's got.

"Can we go see Noah?" Bella asks, once she's curled up against her mother. Andy slides the stool back without a word, and carries her nearly three year old to the master bedroom.

Noah liked space, a lot. One day last month while he was napping she heard all this crashing around from the monitor and sprinted to the nursery as fast as she could, to find Noah rolling around smacking his limbs against the cribs side in his sleep. Sam suggested they set him up in their bed for nap time with a pillow fort to protect him, and he's never slept better.

So they arrive in the bedroom and Andy jostles Bella and turns her so she can see her sleeping baby brother laying contently in the beds middle.

"Can I please nap with Noah?" She asks, pleading with her mommy to not go back to her room alone. Andy's a little surprised by all this, but Bella has been taken with Noah since they brought him home from the hospital, only a little under a year ago.

"Okay Miss B. Just be careful." Andy reminds her quietly, lowering Bella to the bed.

She stays in the room long enough to watch Bella curl up at Noah's side, and Noah readjust in his sleep to curl against his big sister.

She fishes out her phone to snap a quick picture to send Sam while he's at work, and once it's fired off, she leans against the door and tilts her head. She could do this for the rest of her life.


	18. Tommy Relapse

Perhaps for a ficlet Sam being a shoulder for Andy to lean on IF Tommy goes back to the bottle? Maybe taking place in S4 when it was all messy and Nick was sadly lingering in the background. But she never went to Nick for help because that asshat just doesn't understand. ps. I would never want that to happen to Tommy but I kinda miss the guy.

* * *

"Hello?" Sam says into his phone, voice still scratchy. He'd really just meant to pick it up before Marlo woke up too. In fact, when he first picked it up, he had no intention of answering it, but then he saw the caller ID.

"Hi." McNally says on the other end. He hears hesitation first, then pain. "Can you talk?"

Sam looks over his shoulder to Marlo's still sleeping form on the edge of the bed, and gets out as smoothly as he can.

This isn't like Andy, not at all. They barely spoke on the phone when they were together, so he knows this isn't nothing.

"Yeah, just give me a sec." He says back, gently, knowing that she's hate to think she woke him.

He puts a pair of socks on because Marlo's floor is always ice cold, and grabs his shirt from his work bag, where he placed it carefully before going to sleep.

For a brief moment he wonders why this is even happening, she left with Collins tonight, and wonders why he's not there with her. But that thought leaves him quickly, he doesn't entertain it for very long.

"Okay, what's going on? Are you okay?" He asks, when he's walking out into Marlo's kitchen.

He hears nothing on the other end for a while, and then heavy breathing.

"It's dad." She says, voice teetering on a sob. "He relapsed, last week, and it's bad, it's so bad Sam…"

She's gone now, the dam is broken and there is no way he's going to be able to do anything for her for a while. So he takes a seat on the couch, listening to her cry, try to calm herself down, only to lose it all over again.

He thinks about how far the man came. He thinks about the change in his relationship with Andy. How much lighter she seemed when Tommy started taking care of himself.

And then, he sadly realizes this isn't the first time she's had to do this. This isn't the first time he's let her down. It may not be the last.

Andy begins to quiet, she's tiring herself out slowly, and his urge to pick up and go to her immediately is dulling again. Though always there.

"McNally… Andy. Just lie down, okay?" He asks, barely even speaking so doesn't panic and hang up on him. "And just close your eyes. I'm going stay here until you fall asleep, okay. And then I'm going stop by tomorrow with coffee."

She sniffles, and tries to choke everything else she's feeling down. The truth is she was feeling better the minute his voice came through the phone.

"Okay." She says. He hears the rustle of pillows and her sheets as she adjusts everything so it's just right.

A few minutes of listening to each other breathe on either end, and she finally speaks.

"I don't know. I don't know what happened." She whispers, complete devoid of tears, but hope too.

"Shh, Andy, tomorrow. Just sleep now." He says back, not thinking he could take that voice any more than she can bear the confusion in her head. "Just sleep."


	19. Yoga

Prompt: Sam/Andy back together in season 5 and Sam finally does yoga with her!

* * *

As they stand in front of Andy's TV, yoga mats laid out in front of them, Sam begins re-evaluating his decision to agree to this.

She plays the DVD, trying to suppress a victorious grin, not quite believing the day had arrived that she managed to talk Sam Swarek into yoga.

It begins with a flitty little yoga instructor introducing herself and telling them that she's glad that they've welcomed her into their journey, and Sam loses it.

"Sam! sh!" Andy says, waving a hand in his direction, trying to get in the zone. But his chuckling doesn't quiet.

She begins slowly, telling them to touch their toes, and continue to breathe deeply, and he watches as Andy basically folds in half and puts her palms flat on the floor, and decides he'd rather observe than participate.

"Sam, do it. This is literally the easiest program I could find, and you said you'd do it with me, now bend!"

He likes it when she's bossy, so he slowly rolls down in an attempt to touch his toes. He's glad to find that he can. He doesn't really work on keeping limber as a part of his physical workout, especially not anymore, but it's important to Andy, so…

The instructor on the screen tells them to exhale and shift into another pose with a ridiculous name that Sam chuckles at, and he just looks to Andy to see what she does, and follows suit. When all else fails, that's a pass time in itself. So he just keeps watching her, and moves the way that she moves.

With much less grace, and he stumbles quite a bit, but she doesn't comment on it. She just tells him to tighten his core and focus, and it helps. He still thinks yoga is garbage, but he can feel it working in his muscles.

By the time they're done, and Sam's feeling his age, Andy sits herself in the flower position… or whatever, and sits tall, eyes closed, and just breathes. He's standing next to her, in the process of rolling up his mat, and he just stops and waits until she says something to him.

"Sit with me." She says, breathy and quiet.

He's not really sure that he's even in the mood to tease her, which is weird, but he unrolls his mat and sits carefully next to her.

She opens her eyes, and looks at him, and he has wide eyes, like he has no idea what's going on.

"Close your eyes." She says, and for some reason he does, without question. "Deep and steady breaths."

He feels her hand on his ribs, moving with every breath, and suddenly he doesn't feel like it's so silly any more.

"Just focus on all the positive things in your life." She says, guiding this… experience. "And expel all your negative thoughts, all the bad."

Her voice is so, so painfully soft and light, and soothing. He doesn't think he's ever felt more at ease than this moment, and he's actually doing everything she's telling him.

"Just keep thinking about all the good things that have happened this week, month. Everything else, doesn't exist."

He feels her hands fall away, and he nearly opens his eyes to follow where she goes, but then he feels her sitting behind him, _right_ behind, like they're about to do a little pottery. Her hands smooth over his shoulders, urging them to release the tension he didn't know was there, and then one hand moves under arm, across his side and up to his heart.

She presses herself against his back, and soon he can feel her heartbeat between his shoulder blades. They're syncing. And the hand that was left on his shoulder moves down, and he's really starting to like where it's going…

Until it rests on his abdomen. Right where a bullet had been lodge months ago.

"All the things you're thankful for." She says, but her voice is no longer a soft whisper, it's fighting for control.

He moves his hand from his knee to hers, both of them, and he feels her straight posture fold over a little, and she leans forward against him.

Feeling her hide in his neck, he almost opens his eyes again, but then she kisses him there, and composes herself, straightening again.

They stay that way for a minute, no talking, no guiding, both getting back to where they were before.

"Open your eyes." She says, when he thinks he may be on the brink of sleep. "How do you feel?"

Sam feels like the entire room is brighter… like the room itself is as calm as he is. Even though he can hear the traffic outside her building, it's still tranquil. Andy moves out from behind him and crawls to face him, and sits herself down on his folded legs.

"I love you." Is all he says, it's all he feels.


	20. Family Dinner

Prompt: Sam Andy and their daughter arguing at dinner

* * *

"And then I was walking along the alley when I heard…. _voices_." Andy says dramatically, leaning closer to Noah to get an 'ooooh' out of him. He was so invested in the tale, though he'd heard it a dozen times.

"Solid police work on Mommy's part." Sam quips, rolling his eyes in Bella's direction. She smiles just small, pretending to be sick of the story. Truth is she thinks the stories better than most of her Disney favourites.

He keeps an eye on his girl, sharing secret smiles and looks as Andy carries on.

"I went around the corner and there was your Daddy, right there with the bad guys." She says, looking Sam's way, cueing his poker face, look all tough to his son.

Noah grins at them both before shovelling another mouthful of spaghetti into his mouth, slurping the stray noodles and getting marinara sauce all over his face. Sam is on it first, grabs the napkin that Noah's dumped on the floor, and wipes the mess from his sons face, before pinching his nose.

"What next?" Noah peeps, twirling another too big bite of pasta on his fork.

Andy usually insisted on cutting it up for him, but today they decided to let him go for it. Bad decision, as it turns out.

"When I was busy trying to put handcuffs on one of the guys, your daddy took off," Andy says, taking a pause to eat more of her own dinner, noticing that everyone elses plates are emptying pretty quickly. Since she's eating for three she needs to be able to keep up, if not surpass them.

"Then Daddy let her catch him." Bella says, taking a big gulp from her glass of milk.

Noah turns to his sister, frowning, and Sam gives her a curious look, wondering how she came to that conclusion.

"Well, actually Bells, Daddy just wasn't fast enough." Andy smiles, knowing Bella knows this, she really just likes to goad Noah.

"Uh uh, Daddy thought you were the prettiest rookie, and let you catch him." She sing songs, staring at her little brother as she popped a small head of broccolli into her mouth.

"No!" Noah shouts, causing Andy to jump. He's a pretty quiet kid most of the time, but right now he's fuming at his big sister. If Noah's picked up anything from Andy, it's her sense of organization; he likes his facts, and he likes them to be consistent. "Daddy tripped on his feets, and Mama caught him!"

Sam looks to Andy, surprised that their usual dinner time chatter got this heated, and he looks to his son and rubs his back gently, trying to calm him down.

"Bella…" Andy warns, needing Bella to tell Noah that she's just pulling his leg or else she's afraid her son will erupt. He gets the quiet from Sam, and the explosive outbursts if tested.

Bella rolls her eyes, and Sam is suddenly starting to see the McNally stubbornness rear its ugly head in his daughter.

"Just teasing No-ah. Sorry." She says, only a little sheepishly once she sees that Sam's giving her the same look as Andy. That is the no nonsense face. And getting it from Sam meant business. More often than not he was her partner in crime, so when Sam thinks it's gone too far, it has.

Noah seems to shake his upset disposition pretty quickly and focuses on his plate, and spiralling more spaghetti.

"And then a long, long, long time later daddy asked mommy to marry him, and mommy said yes. And then I came along, and then you Noah." Bella finishes, deciding on her own that she owes Noah that.

Noah smiles before slurping more noodles into his mouth, creating yet another mess of sauce all over his happy face. Sam laughs and shakes his head, deciding they'll get it all after they've finished their meal.

Andy looks at Bella with a small smile on her face, happy that her daughter sorted out on her own how to delegate, and is about to go back to her dinner, when Noah speaks again.

"How did the babies get in your tummy mommy?"


	21. Andy is Shot

Prompt: where sam finds out andy got shot and is dying

* * *

"Sam." Traci says from his office door, having just run up the steps.

He pulls his head out of his case file and turns to his partner, wondering if she managed to track down their primary suspect, but when he sees the look on her face, he knows exactly what it is.

The look on her face, he's seen it a few times. He's never been on the receiving end. He's usually standing next to her.

 _"Your daughter is missing…"_

 _"Your husband is being taken into custody for-"_

 _"We found the body…"_

It's practiced art, delivering bad news about a loved one.

"What happened? Where is she?" He asks, rising from his seat and grabbing the jacket off the back of his chair.

He's flying through the barn, already understanding that Nash is going to drive them to whatever hospital they've taken her to.

"Sam, she was shot. They're on the way to Memorial right now. It's… bad. Sam." Traci admits, thinking that giving him the advanced warning would be best.

He doesn't say anything and just enters the sally port, outside parking lot in sight beyond the squad car pulling in. Just because they've been partnered for quite some time now, she knows his tells. She know his clenched fists mean that he's angry about the lack of control in the situation, and that the tightness in his jaw is from impatience. He wants to be there, now.

"No, she'll be fine." He says, yanking open the unmarked detective's car door, sliding into the passenger seat.

Traci doesn't want to start it just yet, she wants to explain exactly what kind of fight Andy's going to have to put up to survive this one. As strong as she thinks her best friend is - _knows_ , her best friend is, she's preparing for the worst. She _feels_ the worst coming.

"Sam, she was shot twice, once in the shoulder, her vest didn't catch it. And the other bullet… The other bullet, Sam, it, it grazed her neck. Dov said it looked like it nicked an artery. There was a lot of blood." She says, feeling bad that can't even look at him while delivering the news.

She's driving anyway, but even when they stop at a red light, she doesn't look over to him. All she can manage is and grabbing his free hand that's clenched and rested on his knee, and giving it a firm squeeze.

Neither one can afford to lose her. Neither one could survive it if they did.


	22. Anniversary

Prompt: Sam being there for Traci on the anniversary of Jerry's death

* * *

"Hey!" Sam says, surprised to see Traci getting out of her car in the division parking lot. This morning of all mornings. "What're you doing here?"

Traci doesn't look like her usual self today. She's not walking with purpose or swagger. She doesn't look ready to be out putting the bad guys in jail. Really though, she isn't supposed too. The whole week leading up to today, they've been a little absent, both of them, Jerry's memory hanging over them like never before.

"Oh, I have trouble not thinking about him in a quiet house, so, I figured why not go to work." Traci says, not even attempting a smile or a front for Sam. She figures it'd be better saved for Frank. "Leo's going to be busy all day with Andy so… might as well get some work done."

He's noticed that Andy's been _tentative_ lately, careful to give him his space. Which, in her mind, meant not calling or texting. He wasn't really sure what he was going to want with the anniversary of Jerry's death approaching, but he's starting to figure out he would've rather had her around these last few days. But being there for Leo, that was important too.

"Are you sure Traci?" Sam asks, hardly believing its right for either of them to be there.

She nods, so they walk in together, brave and united front.

But by lunch both of their energy is dwindling and he catches Traci staring at his desk, a few times. Jerry's desk really.

"Wanna head out for some food?" He asks, when he can't take the heartbreak on her face anymore, setting a plan in motion.

"Yeah, sure." She sighs, pushing herself away from the desk and rising quickly as if the door to a cage has been opened.

"Wanna get some blaglablgobi?"

"It's bulgogi, Swarek." Traci says, almost smiling, grabbing her jacket from the back of her chair.

"Or we could grab burgers. See if maybe Andy and Leo want to come along?" He tests, thinking maybe a little distraction from her best friend and son will cheer her up.

She thinks it over for a moment, and while she rolls her eyes to the side, looking for the nicest way to say no, he retracts the offer. No pressure. He just wants to do what he can to make today easier. That would distract him from his own grief for a while.

But lunch is not where they go. Fifteen minutes later their pulling into the gravelly lot of a familiar cemetery, and Traci looks at him wide eyed.

"He gets lonely." Sam says simply, opening his door to jump out. But before closing it, he turns back. "I'm just going to sit with him for a minute, I'll be right back though."

He closes the door and walks out to the grass field, early December air biting at his nose and cheeks, so he zips his black jacket up a little more, shielding as much of his face as he could. Hands shoved deep into his pockets, he slows in front of his best friends tombstone, and crouches down next to it, a caring hand laying on top.

Sometimes Sam talks to him, but today… today he knows no words are needed or can be produced for the life of him, because what is there to say?

'Hey pal, you've been dead for two years now and it destroyed me almost beyond repair. Till next time.'

He has no news, he has no pleas, he has no remorse. He just has a friend, who's no longer with him.

And with those parting thoughts, he stands, ready to go back to his truck, when he feels Nash walking up beside him, very slowly.

He turns to her a little and watches her sad face as she lays eyes on what's left of the man that left them behind. A hand comes up to cover her mouth, and she breathes deeply, reliving his burial all over again. Sam watches the familiarity of the first visit go through his partner, who's making that visit today.

And once she's taken control of her emotions and stoic face again, he puts a comforting arm around her, and she gives in, leaning her head on his shoulder.


	23. Bandana and Skinny Jeans

Prompt: Sam/Andy. Skinny jeans. Bandana. i dunnoooo. just yeah.

* * *

"I can't believe I let you talk me into this." Sam says, adjusting the crotch of his blue jeans… again. He told her in no uncertain terms that he was not dressing up for Halloween. Andy being Andy managed to talk him into wearing usual clothes… that she gets to pick. Faded jeans, a white tee shirt and a red bandana in the back pocket were not what he expected.

"It's not _really_ a costume…" Andy says from her bedroom where she's been for the last hour, putting the final touches on… whatever it is she's going as. She may have been yammering on about with Nash at her desk when he was trying to finish some paper work a few nights back, but he was just trying to get it done.

"It's not really anything." He says. The jeans are too tight. Like, way too tight. There's definitely a… _bulge_.

"Are you kidding? Turn around." She requests, her voice getting closer as she comes out of her room, but he turns and doesn't see her enter. "Now jut out your hip a little, just a little."

"McNally-"

"Jut!"

He relaxes and lets his hip pop out a little, figuring he's listened to her this far, he might as well keep going.

"See? Born in the U.S.A." She says happily. Sam finally puts it all together and can't help but chuckle.

"I'm a Springsteen album cover? So every time someone asks me what I am, I have to turn around and…" He turns back to face her, see what kind of ridiculous get up she's got on for the party.

And he's floored. Cat woman, done to every man's fantasy. Tight, black, high boots…

He's doing his very best to keep his cool because he could use the ball in his court right now, but she's… something else.

She has her hair down and a little wavier than usual, and small cat ears are peaking out from under it. There's a small mask over her dark raccoon eyes, and he figures there's a small tail pinned to her very, very tight leather pants.

She does her best not to smirk at the desired reaction to her costume, but in the end she can't hold back. She decides to give him the full 360 and does a little spin on the toes of her boots.

"Well?"

" I don't think we should go." Sam says, making his way over to her… slowly.

"What?" She asks, extremely concerned that he's really not going to go, that he's changed his mind and she pushed it too far with the jeans. She knew she should have let him wear his own.

"Well, you look… I can't take you out for hours like that." He says, tamping down his smile to the best of his abilities.

He watches disappointment set in, and her posture sink a little. She kicks her boot into nothing on the floor and swings it back and forth a couple times, giving her the air of a kid.

"Cause all I'm going to be thinking about are ways to get you home and _out_ of that…"


	24. Coma

Prompt: Would you be able to do one where Sam is in the hospital in a coma imagining his life with Andy? Finishes with him waking up to Andy by his side. Please and Thank you :)

* * *

They were racing each other. A wave of brown haired children speeding down the hill of Sarah's lake front property, toward the water.

David, his brother in law, hands him a bottle of beer as they sit on the deck, watching Boo chase after them, barking and herding them, keeping them all together. The men sit back in their chairs, bundled up just a little, it's been crisp for September, the season turning from summer to fall all too quickly.

The seasons are always changing too quickly for Sam's liking. His kids are getting older, his hair a little greyer… At some point Andy's not going to be able to carry their children as safely as she has.

'One more though' He thinks, five is a hockey line, he would be satisfied with that.

"It's the best isn't it?" David asks, looking between the barbecue cooking on the grill and his children playing with their cousins. Even he can't believe that Sam's here with him, watching their kids run around.

They listen to the lake splash against the shore and the kids wade into the water and throw a stick for Boo, and listen to their wives laughing in the kitchen, mixing drinks, or chopping vegetables… maybe a little of both.

"It is." He says, still not quite believing himself that this is where he ended up. He's thankful. So thankful, for the woman inside that gave him the chance to have it all.

The kids are beginning to splash at each other a little, and his eldest daughter squeals, and yells at her younger siblings that they'll catch their death if they get too wet. Her mothers' daughter, and she really doesn't know it.

The sliding door connected to the kitchen slides open, and Sarah and Andy's laughter filters through as they step out with a bowl of salad and drinks of their own in their hands. They too take a moment to lean against the deck banister to watch their children before setting it all down on the picnic tables.

Sarah calls out to the kids, and they all turn and race back up the hill, this time Boo leading the pack.

And then Andy's calling Sam… but he won't look over. Can't actually. He's fighting with every muscle in his neck, and yet he can't turn to his beautiful wife. He feels himself slipping actually, losing consciousness to Andy's voice.

And his eyes finally slip shut to the image of his children smiling and running up the hill only to open.

He's wide awake, in a white, very white, room. Soft beeping and whirring fill the air, and then a fimilar-

"Sam?"

Voice…

This time he's able to turn his voice to her face, and he watches as she smiles in relief, unable to help herself.

And he knows that he may have just been dreaming… but he thinks it's more than that. He thinks that was his future.

"You're awake."


	25. Labour

Prompt: Sam and Andy in his truck on the way to the hospital for their first child. Andy's screaming at Sam to drive faster and Sam is freaking out because he's actually going to be a dad.

"AAAAAAAAH!" Andy screams, causing Sam to slam on the breaks a lot harder than he had intended when she rides another contraction. "I'm never letting you do this to me again."

She promises this every time. All three times that have come before it. The twins especially. Sam couldn't remember a time when she was in labour that she hadn't been screaming his ear off about leaving him if he did it to her again.

(They both knew she was lying, she cried tears of happiness when she found out about baby number 5.)

Quite frankly if she hadn't over estimated how much time she had between her first contraction and needing to go to the hospital, they wouldn't be having this talk in the truck. It'd be in a hospital room where he could back off and give her time with Nash to cry about how much she hates him, then how much she loves him once she realizes it's all just hormones.

Andy underestimated how fast her body would react to labour, and how fast her body would ready itself. In Sam's eyes she was kind of a pregnancy expert. God knows she'd been through this a time or two.

"I'm sorry baby, you know I don't mean it." She sighs as the contraction ends, and she can relax in the passenger side of the car.

She runs her fingers through his hair absently and he relaxes and continues through the four way stop, remembering the very first time Andy went into labour.

 _They were both at home the night that her contractions started, but it wasn't until around 3am that she became so uncomfortable that they had to leave for the hospital._

 _Sam of course didn't get any sleep and just kept checking his watch to time her contractions, despite the fact that she insisted she was fine, and later he'd be craving the rest. She was right. As she usually was, but he didn't want to miss a minute._

 _"Andy, where's the bag?" He yelled out the door and toward the truck that he had running in the driveway._

 _They'd tried to leave for the hospital twice already. The first time Sam forgot Andy. The second time he forgot his wallet and the go bag._

 _"In the closet Sam," Andy called back tiredly, just wanting to get herself situated comfortably before it was time to get pushing._

 _"I_ _ **am**_ _coming sweetheart, I promise, just hang on. Do we have everything?" He asked, bounding down the front steps of the house, and towards the truck._

 _"Front door babe." Andy said, rather calmly as Sam began to open the drivers' side door of the truck, ready to speed off._

 _"Ugh, okay, sorry, Andy I swear-"_

 _"Sam just get the door!"_

"Oh my god!" Andy cringes as Sam pulls up to the maternity ward doors, just in time for the beginning of a new contraction.

He's not worried anymore. They've got four beautiful children that have been raised successfully to date. He can do this.


	26. Juice

Prompt: Sam's been in the hospital for a few days. Andy goes to get him some juice. The machine is outside the nurses lounge. Seems Sam's been asking when he can have a shower. The nurses are in there trying to figure out how they can con his nurse into switching with them.

* * *

Sam and Andy were side by side in Sam's hospital, about a week after the shooting when Sam's surgeon and attending doctor knocked on the door to go over another surgery Sam was going to have to have. The bullet hadn't punctured right through any major organs, but it had managed to cause a small hole in one of his lungs, and there was danger of it collapsing. The surgeon had managed to talk Sam into a preventative procedure, and apparently the success rate was quite high, but it still worried Andy.

She excused herself from their discussion and placed a kiss on his forehead, promising to be back shortly with some juice for him and coffee for her.

She really hated hospitals, but they were a much less menacing place when you weren't just waiting, suspended in limbo. There were faces of doctors and nurses that were becoming more familiar to her, and the patients in the rooms around Sam's were always offering smiling face when she saw them out and about in the halls. It was like a weird little community, and she was actually finding herself enjoying the routine of it all.

As approaches the coffee machine in the nurse's station, a few young nurses make their way in, collapsing on the couches inside for a, probably, well deserved break. Andy goes about her coffee making and watches the sludge fall from the machine into a cheap foam cup, and then slides over to the vending machine on the other side of the door just in time to hear the gossip on her wing.

"That cop who got shot in 404? Oh my god… his _eyes._ You can just tell he's great in the bedroom, I can't even imagine."

"I haven't seen him de-gowned, but I bet he has a body to _die_ for."

"I heard he's been asking Dr. Cox when he can shower again, which means he's been getting sponge baths! I want that wing on my rotation."

"I heard he's in for one more surgery, but won't need a long recovery here. Shame though."

Andy decides she can't take much more of them fawning over Sam and grabs her juice from the bottom of the machine and storms off back to Sam's room, hoping the doctor is done.

When she arrives, he is, and she tosses Sam his juice without a 'heads up' and then plonks herself down into the chair.

"What's wrong?" He asks, unsealing his juice then taking a long sip.

"Oh nothing. Just over heard some idiot nurses whining about how much they wanna give you a sponge bath." She grumbles, not even looking him in the eye.

Sam doesn't laugh or chortle, he just contemplates that. And once his ego is fully satisfied, he tells her he was only sponge bathed once, and it was a 50 year old nurse with a big family of her own at home, and there was nothing to worry about.

She raises an eyebrow, half certain that he's making this up just to reassure her, but she smiles in the end, appreciating the effort.

"I'll tell you what, I'll request male nurses from now on."

"Really?"

"No, but you can be here for every bath and over see them if you want to McNally."


	27. McPeck

Prompt: Last but not least - Gail & Andy have to do a prisoner transport together (in my head a song comes on the radio that's about cheaters or backstabbing or something) Hoping in the end they laugh about it.

* * *

Things were quiet. And awkward. It's a prisoner transport, so Andy figures this is a thing. Maybe it's how Frank likes to relieve tension between his officers. Andy doesn't know, and Andy doesn't care actually, she just wants it to be over.

This is worse than being stuck with Sam. Much worse. She could match his sarcasm and bad attitude any day, she was used to it. Being on the receiving end of Gail Peck snark however… she was not prepared.

She didn't dare chatter until she wore Gail down, because she doesn't trust that Gail would leave her un-maimed if she pushes her too far.

She guesses that the silence was killing Gail too once they got into their second hour of the drive, and she turned the radio on. Andy figured a few months ago they may have been singing along together, maybe even getting a little closer, paling around. She finally thought they were getting to that place… and then everything with Nick happened.

She's still not sure that Gail should be this mad. They'd been broken up a few weeks… and fine, maybe that's not very long.

Then again, she's not certain that Gail and Luke didn't fool around at some point. She knew they were actually close after she got suspended. It was still a grey area.

And then it happened. A good ol' Taylor Swift song danced through the speakers, and Gail rode the wave.

"She's not a saint, and she's not what you think she's an actress, whooooooooa." Gail sang loudly, breaking the silent streak that they'd had going. "She's better known for the things that she does on the-"

"Gail!" Andy interrupts, not even wanting to hear it.

Gail seems to concede that finishing the lyric might have pushed it, so she stops and turns down the radio.

"Look, Andy… I'm not going to say that I'm going to forget about it, because let's be honest, you didn't care enough about me to talk to me before something happened. You took your damn sweet time fessing up to it, and basically chose him over me." Gail says, eyes focussed on the road.

Andy watches her partner… and friend, explain it the way she saw it, and Andy feels the guilt begin to weigh her down. And she's right. But there's more to it, so she sits and waits.

"But, I know that you two were friends, and it was easy and there, and you felt that you needed that. I can't forget it. Considering that it wasn't much more than friends, even with the sex, and considering everything that's happened since then with… I might be able to forgive you."

Andy feels like a child whose parent just told them they were disappointed, but acknowledges that this is something from Gail. That they're gonna move forward now.

"How's Holly?" Andy asks a few minutes later, feeling as though she might get a real answer.

"Holly's great, we're good. How's Sam?"

"Better. We're both doing… better."


	28. Advice

Prompt: Oliver giving Sam parenting advice!

* * *

"Bella has a crush on that hooligan next door." Sam mumbles, staring at the bar top under his hands as he slides onto the stool next to Oliver.

Oliver snorts and sets his beer down, already knowing it's going to be an interesting story. Sam waves Liam down and orders himself a tumbler of scotch. It's been one of those weeks. Oliver looks around the bar and notices Andy over at Traci and Steve's table, laughing and having a good time. Gets him wondering if it's really an issue, or a "Sam" issue.

"He was over yesterday, and they were out in the yard. Caught him holding her hand." Sam says, grim expression still holding.

Oliver stifles a chuckle and looks at his friend like he's making the biggest deal out of nothing.

"Well, she won't be your little girl forever. Believe me, two out of my three have steady boyfriends."

Sam gives Oliver a look that suggests that's the least helpful thing he's ever said.

"You've still got the twins! They won't be into boys for quite some time." He shrugs.

"Yeah, but this kid, I mean, shaggy hair, no respect-"

"Brother, I'm not going to lie, you are over reacting. Girls are pumped full of those fairytale loves. The ones I know you and Andy have always read her. She's just looking for someone to play prince charming."

Sam rolls his eyes, and takes a sip of his drink, wondering who might be able to offer him something more. Scare tactics, ways to tricking into not touching his princess…

Frank maybe. Though it was common knowledge that Noelle would have overall say… And everyone else had boys. His boy, thank god, was still convinced of cooties.

"I'm just saying the kids gotta come to me next time he wants so much as to talk to Bella." He vows, too late to hear his wife approaching them.

"Not this again. Sam, Marie asked me if I could watch him while she went to an appointment. I had an eye on them the whole time. They played on the swings and had a snack. That's it. It was adorable." Andy says, giving him a sassy arched eyebrow.

Sam continues to sulk and Oliver slides away silently, thinking maybe only she can convince him.

"Sam…" She prompts, hoping to get to the bottom of the problem.

"It feels like yesterday was the day she was born." He sighs, hating to be the one getting sentimental. "I just don't want her growing up too fast."

Andy rubs her hands up and down his arms as she stands behind him, eventually wrapping herself around him in a brief hug.

"Sam… she's five. I can assure you it's all very innocent. He's just her first crush. Next week she'll go back to thinking boys are yucky, I promise."

He looks up at her a little hope in his big brown eyes, and he nods, thinking she's probably right. Bella still can't commit to any phase for very long.

"The kids not so bad I guess." Sam concedes, thinking he was too harsh on the five year old.

"Yeah, he's nice." Andy agrees, offering Sam the jacket he'd left at their table, silently letting him know she's tired and wants to get back home to the babies. "And you know, the way five year olds flirt, you'll probably get to watch her squeeze out a juice box all over his pants."


	29. Reunion

Prompt: Ok let's here it! We've all been imagining how the reunion kiss will happen between Sam and Andy. So I was wondering how you envision it in a ficlet?!

* * *

It had been two weeks since everything happened. The shooting, Marlo's forced resignation, the inquiry into the whole Ford case…

Sam was released from the hospital a week ago but the only people who'd seen him were the people who went to visit him at home. Oliver, Traci, hell even Dov stopped by with a leave survival kit for him. So she'd heard.

But she hadn't seen him since he woke up in the hospital. He told her didn't remember a lot after being wheeled toward the ambulance and he remembered her being there but nothing specific. So maybe Andy takes the easy out, and smiles tightly, not owning up to the words she'd said, but maybe it's all a sign anyway. Maybe.

Which leaves her at the Penny on the first night that Sam makes an appearance. She's on her way out as he's coming in and she steps aside, letting him though the door, but not before she swallows the large lump that forms in her throat, preventing her from saying hello.

She decides maybe she's not ready to leave yet.

So she finds herself at the bar, drinking alone with Gail, who's working through some romantic issues of her own. Something about Gail not wanting to put a label on what she and Holly are… Andy's not one hundred percent sure. But they're not commiserating together, they're commiserating separately, together.

Andy continues to throw glances over her shoulder, watching Sam make the rounds and be patted on the back and welcomed by everyone who hasn't seen him, and he smiles through it all. He catches her watching him a couple times though, really killing the stealth she was trying to maintain. But she ceases to care about it when she recognizes the look in his eye. She'd seen that look a lot, after they broke up, before she left.

He knows. He heard her, she knows it.

And when he watches realization set in with her, and he has to get out of there. Problem is he has to go through the same crowd he encountered trying to get in.

So she beats him out, and is waiting up against the Penny's brick wall in the parking lot, when he emerges, walking briskly towards his truck.

"Sam!" She calls, pushing herself from the wall, and taking two small steps forward.

"Not tonight McNally, I'm not in the mood." He says back, continuing on his way not even chancing a look at her.

With every step that he takes away from her she feels her heart tighten and her breathing shallow, worried that he's just going to slip through her fingers. Every step he takes, a small vice around her heart tightens until she can't stand it anymore.

"Sam, you are not leaving me here again!" She yells.

Sam stops dead in his tracks, not a meter away from the pickup, and has to screw his eyes shut to take a minute. And as he's about to continue on, because he still has the strength, she speaks again.

"I know you heard me when I told you I love you, and I know why you're pretending you didn't. You think you're doing the right thing but you're wrong."

She waits to see if he'll turn to her, or if he has anything to add, but when it's not enough to warrant a response, she presses on.

"I don't know what happy is without you. I'm content, and yeah maybe if I forget that we ever happened It's easy to pretend… for a while. But then 2am will roll around and it sinks in that we are leading separate lives and I hate it." She rasps, losing herself in what feels like deja vu, only this time she's fighting with everything she has and not taking no for an answer.

Sam turns sideways, not quite facing her, but he's bringing his deep and soulful eyes up to meet hers, and it prompts her to speak again.

"You love me, I know you do. We were good together, Sam, we were. You make me happy." She confesses, having bared what's left of her most private feelings.

And then his pounding chest can't take it anymore. He's in front of her, two hands on her face in two long strides, and as he brings his face a little closer to hers and she closes her eyes, waiting, he pulls back just a little.

"Don't say it if you don't mean it Andy." He says, voice completely raw, if she backs away now, he'll be a shell of a man.

"I love you." She insist, before crashing her mouth to his.


	30. Teasing

Prompt: After Jerry proposes to Traci. Since Sam's happy his brother is finally locking it down, he and Jerry ponder the idea of Sam proposing to Andy some day + Sam joking that his proposal would be way better than a lame inscription on a knife.

* * *

"Your drink's on me Sammy." Jerry says, about two nights after he's given Traci her engagement knife.

"Where you been hiding? Nash got you hooked up to a ball and chain already brother?" Sam jokes, leaning away from the bar, prepared to be spoiled by his best friend. A glass of expensive scotch lands in front of him, and his eyebrows creep up on his forehead a little at Jerry pulling out all the stops.

"I'm be lucky to be chained to that woman for life." He smiles, looking off at Traci who's joined Andy and Dov in a game of darts. "Should have listened to you though, she thought the knife was hokey."

"It worked, didn't it? It's all up from here." Sam laughs, having heard enough proposal talk from Jerry to last him a lifetime.

"How would you do it? For McNally, how would you ask?" Jerry wonders aloud, thinking maybe the scotch on him might help his question.

Sam gives him a predictable sideways glance and eye roll. But Jerry doesn't plan on speaking until he gets an answer. Sam watches her make a clean throw, nearly hitting the bulls eye and cringing when she does. Competitive girl she is, wants to win at almost any cost. _Almost_.

"I dunno man… that's not even…" Sam doesn't know how to tell his friend it's not on his radar. They've only been together a few months.

But that's not what Jerry's asking. Jerry was saying when and if the time is right. Sam can barely believe he has her now, but forever? That's something beyond what he thinks he deserves or could ever keep.

"I just know it won't involve an engraved knife," He digs in the end, truly not able to think of anything worthy of her.

So long as she doesn't find a ring intended for an ex, he figures he might have a shot.


	31. Therapy

Prompt: Sam + Andy in therapy... after the shooting? And Sam has to attend at least one session before being cleared to get back on duty... And Andy insists on being there for him.

* * *

"Okay, Mr. Swarek, Dr. Dwyer is ready for you now." The receptionist says, pulling Sam from his thoughts and pointing towards the therapists door.

Andy drops his hand, and reaches for a magazine on the waiting room table, prepared to wait till his session is over to go home with him. Just in case he wants to… she doesn't really know. She just feels like this is something she should be on standby for.

Sam rises slowly, rubbing his hands together and then smoothing the front of his pants, anxious about having to see this particular therapist again. On the one hand, he's already had a first awkward encounter. But at the time of that appointment he really didn't think he'd have to hear from her again. Now he's got to face her for a follow up. Now he needs to be cleared for duty.

As he pushes her office door open, she's already and seated, and actually looks around his legs out into the waiting room. She stands and removes her glasses, moving to open the door a little more and peek over Sam's shoulder.

"Ms McNally, why don't you join us?" She asks, really tells, before moving back to her seat. Sam stands there and shrugs his shoulders, not really that surprised that it got worse when he didn't think it could.

So Andy really feels helpless to refuse. And she's gonna lie, she's curious now too. So she closes the door behind her, trapped in the lion's den, without a chair.


	32. Tim's

Prompt: Andy's watching TV and Sam finds her crying at a Tim Horton's commercial. Let the banter begin.

* * *

When the Leafs game goes into the first intermission, Andy stretches her arms over her head and yawns widely, sitting up and away from Sam. It's only 7:45pm but she feels like it's well past midnight, and she's completely worn out from the day that she's had. Week really. Lots of… news and stuff.

Sam cracks a smile, watching her shake out the cobwebs and then slouch over, thinking about what she should do in the fifteen minute break. She's about to suggest tea or a snack or something to keep her busy until the action packed game returns, but then a familiar commercial begins on the screen and she just falls back into Sam.

She curls her feet up as she watches the events unfold on screen. A grandpa arriving at an arena with a good old Tim Hortons cup of coffee for the janitor, himself, and his son, ready to cheer on his grandson. Though it had seemed to his son he never supported his passion for hockey. Always interrupting the games they played on the street, telling him to turn off the game and study.

But then he pulls a crinkled photo of his son in uniform from the wallet and tells him he used to come to his games, watch from a more hidden place. And someone else would hand him a cup of coffee from Tims.

As realization dawns on the sons face the grandfather cheers for his grandson on the ice turning to the other parents in the stands telling them proudly just who he is.

'That's my grandson!'

'Thanks for coming dad.'

And then the familiar slogan of the campaign comes over the two cups of coffee framed on screen-

Every Cup Tells a Story

Sam continues to stroke Andy's hair and waits for the next commercial to come and go so that the sports casters can discuss the plays and highlights they just saw until he feels Andy sniffle against him.

"Wha… Andy, what's, what's wrong?" He asks, sitting them up enough that she can turn comfortably toward him but remain close to him.

"I dunno I just, that was so sweet. He didn't even know his dad…" She trails off, fresh tears pricking her eyes. "Stupid bloody hormones."

She wipes her eyes furiously with the back of her hand, but Sam just sits there confused as all hell, and frankly, a little worried. As she battles to get her emotions back under control, she realizes that she's gotta come clean.

"Okay, this isn't how I had it planned or anything… I was going to do something creative and something you'd remember but, now's as good a time as any." She says, wandering all over the place at first, but reigning her thoughts back in when it counts. "I'm pregnant."


	33. Porn

Prompt: andy bring porn to sam's hospital room... since he did suggest it before. ;'))

"Knock knock," Andy says, standing in the door of Sam's private hospital room. Oliver was in the chair next to him, still in uniform, only here for a short lunch break. "I have real food."

She watches the men look at each other before smiling back her way, and she knows what's happened.

"No… are you kidding me? Oliver fed you?" She whines, tossing the bag of food down on the table next to his bed.

Sam smiles guiltily, having fully intended to try and get two lunches, but Andy was wildly strict about what he could and couldn't have. She basically sat with his doctor for an hour talking about what kind of help and monitoring he'd need during his recovery.

"Sorry McNally, I wasn't sure what kind of rabbit food you were giving him, I figured he could use a burger.

"Oliver you know he can't have burgers or anything too fatty. He's supposed to be getting stronger not clogging his arteries."

Rather than wait for Oliver's seat to empty up, she perches herself on the foot of the hospital bed, and runs her hand over Sam's ankle and lower leg, trying to give him some incentive to get Oliver to leave them alone for a bit.

"What can I say, the man can't refuse good meat." Oliver brags, smiling as he rises. And just as he catches the shit eating grin on Sam's face and the howl coming from Andy, he catches what they heard and hangs his head. "You know what I meant."

He waves at them before taking off and Andy's doubled over, laying sideways on the bed, basically all over Sam's legs.

Once Oliver's gone and her laughter has died down, she rests her body completely on the bed, and Sam pats beside him, wordlessly encouraging her to slide up next to him, so she does. Makes herself right at home.

"So what did you bring me?" Sam asks, looking over her body to the brown paper bag she dropped on the table next to them when she entered.

"Actually, it wasn't food." She smiles, reaching behind herself for the mysterious brown paper bag. She fishes something out of it and tosses it towards Sam. He looks at the DVD in confusion for a minute, seeing a woman lounging by the pool and an overly butch pool boy eyeing her hungrily.

It doesn't take a genius.

"McNally what the hell?" He asks, wildly amused but also a little, well, a little embarrassed.

"I seem to remember the remedy to gloomy hospital patients being poker and porn?" She reminds him. He remembers saying something like that, and surely she knows he was kidding. He's just surprised she went to these lengths.

"I believe I said poker, and if that doesn't work _then_ porn… but thanks." He smiles, grabbing the bag out of her hands to put it back in the bag. "Just so you, poker with you would be a much better use of my time."


	34. Alt 4x13

Prompt: Ok, I don't know if you've done this, and if you haven't, I don't know if you can do this, but this is my ficlet request: Andy goes after Sam in 4x13. What would've she said if they hadn't found Oliver squad?

* * *

"Sam." She calls as she catches the closing door, following his lead into the parking lot, suddenly very aware that they are both on a snipers hit list. "Wait!"

"No, Andy, I gotta go. Okay?"

"No. It's not okay." She says, not really sure what else she had to say. She just knew he couldn't leave. She just knew she didn't want him to be walking away again.

"So, what, what is it that you want from me?" He asks, turning around finally.

He just has to make her see, she has to get this. He's out, he's stepping back. It's time to go home, it's time for her to live her life away from him and his scrutiny.

"I don't know." She says, exasperated, confused, unsure of why she needs him to stop.

 _"I want you to be happy."_

She hasn't felt happy - the way she used to - in a really long time.

"You don't know? Well how about you go back inside, help them get this guy and just let this go." He suggests, pushing her, once again, in the right direction. "Just go back inside."

She hears his words, his will, but her feet refuse to move. Her head is spinning and while her head is trying to make sense of her heart she doesn't realize that she's said something.

She looks back up to him and his jaw has a little slack, leaving him there open mouthed and wide eyed.

"What?" He asks, thinking he didn't hear her.

But her brain has no memory of the words she just spoke, so she moves her mouth the same way, and the same sound comes out. This time she's paying attention.

"You make me happy."

She herself, wants to be taken by surprise, but she supposes she's always known it. Lately, he hasn't, he'd made someone else his priority in that, but if what she picked up on was right, it hadn't really been working.

But he did.

He had made her so happy. It's why he was able to crush her so easily. And she knows that wasn't his intention. She knows that he made sense of what happened, that he justified it. She didn't understand, but that didn't make him malicious. It just mean they were at a cross roads.

And they still are.

"I don't _want_ him." She hears herself admitting.

She stares at the pavement, all of her words catching up to her, and making her realize how exposed she is…. they both are. Out here, and well…

"I know I'm supposed to want him. I know it could be good. He's open and he cares…" She wishes she could shut herself up. She wishes she could turn off her mouth now, because this, is painful to say to him.

"But I _want_ you. I _love_ you."

She watches Sam's chest rise and fall with the same weight as the first time she told him. But there's no smile on his face. He looks pained… almost.

"Andy-"

"I do." She insists, needing something from him. She can't be the only one here, she can't be this exposed only to be left in a parking lot again. She needs him to come through, or else there will be nothing left of her.

"I know." He concedes, face relaxing only a little. He wants to see her face, he wants her to look at him, he wants to know what's going on in her head, now more than ever. "Me too."


	35. Boo

Prompt: I would love, love, love to read your take on Season 5 Sam and Andy adopting Boo. happy to resubmit at a later date, if your queue is all full.

* * *

"You do know that finding a good natured, house broken, family friendly labradoodle at a pound is unlikely right?" Sam asks, closing the truck door while she makes her way around the cab to him.

When she's at his side she grabs hold of his hand and skips ahead a little, huge grin on her face.

"The universe has a plan." She smiles, laughing at his response to her. He rolls his eyes. "It's not a pound, it's the SPCA. I don't care what kind of dog we go home with, as long as he's got a lot of love to give."

It was only a week ago that she reminded him of promises made more than twelve months ago. She was teasing him really. She was curled up in bed already, teeth brushed and book in hand. She forgot tomorrow was garbage day.

 _"Sam. Garbage." She'd groaned as the realization dawned upon her. He frowned and chuckled as he entered her room, ready to get himself into bed with her. But when she looked up at him quite seriously, he huffed a sigh, and figured it was never too late to make good on a promise._

 _"Okay, okay. I suppose you want me to make dinner tomorrow night too." He quipped, grabbing a sweatshirt to throw on before dragging out the garbage._

 _"What?"_

 _"You know, garbage, dinner, dog…" He reminded her, leaning against the doorframe to watch it sink in._

 _She seemed to contemplate the speech he'd made to her, and then a slow smile stretched its way across her face._

 _"Were you serious about the dog?"_

After walking into the shelter and introducing themselves to one of the volunteers, Andy reached into her pocket and unfolded a piece of printed paper, with the picture and bio of a white labradoodle.

Sam peers over her shoulder curiously as she explains to the girl that that's who they are here to see. And as they're being led to his kennel, Sam asks her what's going on.

"I may have done a little research." She shrugs, smiling away. "He's really young and it would be easy enough to adjust him to a new name. He's very friendly, gets a bit of separation anxiety but we can work on it-"

"Andy, Andy." He says, trying to slow her roll. "Let's just meet him okay?"

She realizes now that they've stopped in front of his kennel, and he's whimpering and wagging his tail, moving from side to side, eager to meet them.

"This is Buddy. Buddy, this nice man and lady are gonna take you for walk!" She exclaims, voice high pitched and over enthusiastic as she enters and leashes him. "He's great on the leash, and he's kid friendly, so don't worry if you meet people on the sidewalk."

She hands the lead to Sam, and he pats the dogs head, watching Andy crouch down to his level to say a proper hello.

The dog jumps up and puts his paws on her thighs that are perfectly horizontal in her crouch. Wedging his nose in her face, she squeezes her eyes shut and lets the dog lick her face until it's too ticklish to handle.

Sam's still rubbing the dogs side, watching the interaction. And when Andy pulls back and holds the dogs head still, he can see it in her eyes, that she's already made a choice.


	36. Eat a Dick

Prompt: Sam and Andy are back together again but they are keeping it a secret for a while. Enjoying themselves. Sam finds it hard to control himself when a very handsome and charming lawyers puts the moves on Andy. And Gail and trac encourage her because they think she's single.

* * *

"So you and Sam?" Gail asks the morning they're partnered on desk. "Back in the saddle?"

Andy laughs, smiling at the thought on just how great that, uh, _ride_ has been and shakes her head.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She says, not even trying to convince her otherwise.

She grabs both of their coffee cups and makes her way to the barn ready to get them both a refill. As she reaches the kiosk her phone vibrates, and she pulls it out of her pocket expecting it to be Sam, watching her from his desk, trying to make her blush, but is surprised to see that it's Gail calling.

"What?" Andy asks, looking through the glass to her desk partner.

Her hand is blocking the mouth piece and an impish look in her eyes.

"So, if you and Sam aren't doing it, flirt with hot mister prosecutor who's at your six and headed right for you. Kay, byyyyee!" Gail says, hanging her phone up, just as Andy's feels another body close in next to her.

"'Scuse me." A male voice says, causing Andy to jump over a couple of feet.

She looks to her left to get a look at the legendary "hot prosecutor" and sees a rather attractive guy in a nice, expensive, suit. Tall, blond… she's almost a little pissed at Gail. _Almost_.

Over the tall mans shoulder she sees Sam staring at her with a confused, and no trace of amused, expression. She gives him a bit of a panicked nod, and right as she's about to turn back to her coffee, and actually pour some to bring back to Gail, she bumps right into the guy.

"Someone's a little jumpy." He laughs, stirring his cup of coffee slowly, resting against the ledge of the counter, making himself at home while Andy makes both her and Gail's coffees.

"Yeah, sorry about that." She apologizes, blushing a little. "Desperately need my caffeine fix."

To be honest she's not even sure what's going on. The only reason she's acting this way is because she foolishly thought she could play Gail's game. And then of course she saw Sam and then her brain turned to mush.

"I'm Mark Johnson." He says after a slightly awkward pause, extending a hand to her just as she's picking up the two cups. "Prosecutor."

Andy bites down a sarcastic smile and tries to make it come across as sweet, while she sets down the coffee.

"Officer McNally." She says, leaving her first name out of it. "Cop."

She's sure to grip his hand quite tightly, the way a dad tends to do with his daughters' boyfriend.

"Oh, how formal." He laughs, dirt bag tone in his voice that makes Andy wish she had her duty belt on so her baton was nearby.

"Yeah, well, titles seemed important to you." She's about ready to head off again, when she hears Sam only a few feet away telling Oliver 'not now' and she listens to his footfalls get closer.

"McNally," he says, placing a hand on the small on her back, waiting for her to turn to him a bit, and once she does, he kisses her.

She's taken completely off guard. Like, totally. They've never, ever kissed inside the division walls, let alone in uniform on the job, and now here she is, in the middle of the barn no less, being kissed as PG-13 as Sam knows how to keep it.

"Swarek." She breathes after he pulls away, satisfied grin on his face. "Well, you have a good one… shift… day. I have a desk. And coffee. So, goodbye."

As she's walking back through the door to the main desk, she sees Gail trying to keep her laughing inaudible, but after she hands her the coffee, she loses it.

"You're so easy."

"Eat a dick Gail."


	37. Jay Dies

Prompt: You seem to be on a roll with ficlets so here's a really (really) tough one: future fic where Andy makes Sam feel the most known and loved.

* * *

"I'm sorry." Andy says, the minute he gets in the door, unable to say nothing.

He's staring at the ground in front of her feet, clenching his teeth, jaw tight, same eyes he had the night Jerry died.

Sarah comes in the door behind him, red and puffy eyes, tears lining her cheeks, looking as though they had yet to stop. Seeing her immediate distress, Andy goes to give her a hug, taking her purse and jacket first and placing them on the coat rack. And when she does hug her, it offers Sam an opportunity to slip away from the two of them, take some time to himself, which Andy thinks maybe he needs.

Andy helps Sarah upstairs to the guest room and leaves her alone when she tells Andy she can handle things from there.

"Andy?" She calls, just as she's about to close the door. "He'll be okay."

Andy nods, unconvinced of Sarah's words and shuts the door, determined to find Sam.

And she does. He's in their room downstairs, a tumbler of scotch in his hand, sitting on the chair by the window with the same determinedly stone look on his face. But when he spots her standing in the door, leaning against its frame, he stands up and sets it down on their dresser, determined to be closed off to any opportunity for a conversation.

With his back to her he starts unbuttoning his shirt, but she sees through the silence. She knows that face means that there is a storm raging inside of him.

"Sam." She says, willing him to acknowledge her, and when he does, she breaks for him, taking the few steps between them and wraps her arms around his neck.

It only takes a minute for him to reciprocate and put his hands on her back, holding her there tightly.

She scratches the hair on the nape of his neck over and over again, as if it would immediately relax every tense muscle in his rigid shoulders. And when it doesn't and he just holds her a little tighter, she kisses the exposed part of his neck above his black dress shirt.

She lets a couple more tears fall, just unable to grasp how confused and frustrated he is right now.

"It is okay to be mad at him." She insists, knowing his father was the furthest thing from a great male role model. Knowing how badly he messed with Sam's head, and esteem, and nearly dragged him down the same path. "But it's also okay to miss him."

He seems to tense even more once those words are out of her mouth and he starts to pull away from her, but once they're face to face again she places her hands on his face, trying to keep him there with her in this moment.

"Because no matter what he did, he's also that guy who split a pint of pistachio ice cream with you when you were six years old." She whispers, leaning her forehead against his. "It's okay."

His face cracks only a little, and then he pulls her into a hug again, probably only to keep her from seeing his face as his shell breaks.

She feels hot tears against her bare shoulder, and she has a hard time keeping her own at bay while he struggles to come to terms with it all.

"It's okay."


	38. Marlo

Prompt: Sam runs into Marlo at the store and Marlo think they could have worked and wants to try again. Andy shows up, because she's there with Sam and Sam explains to Marlo that he's sorry but its always been McNally.

* * *

"Crap. I forgot to grab face wash. I'll go back to the pharmacy." Andy says after looking through all the items in their cart.

He continues checking the produce, and nods, receiving a kiss on his cheek and then she's off down to the other end of the store. This was the most stimulating outing he'd had in a about a month. And not because of his physical limitations, no. He'd been back at work, staying in the division, for a couple of weeks now, but Andy is convinced that he needs to take it slow.

It's great most of the time. She's basically moved herself into his house. She's there in the morning when he wakes up, usually with coffee already brewing. She's there at night when he goes to bed, his own personal heater. Though sometimes her feet are like blocks of ice…

And then there are the times he's not allowed to do anything. She runs the errands, she monitors how much he exerts himself, she keeps insisting that he needs to go rest. He's a little restless _because_ of it, but she likes taking care of him, so for now, he's letting her.

Wouldn't want to say something and have her spook.

"Sam?" A voice calls from behind him, causing him to drop the apple in question.

He's pretty surprised to see Marlo there, basket of food in hand, smiling timidly.

"Marlo, hi." He says, still kind of confused. "I thought you were going on a trip."

She walks the rest of the distance between them and opens her arms, wondering silently if it'd be too weird

He concedes, only because it'd be weird to deny her that at this proximity. So he uses one arm, keeps it short.

"I have my hearing with the white shirts this week, so, I had to come back." She explains, trying to just get past the awkward mention of the suspension.

He nods, not even wanting to delve into that right now.

"I- I missed you." She says, looking like it's taken a lot of her pride to get the words out.

The way things went down after he got shot, he wouldn't have guessed it. She was distant, gave him a cold and impersonal speech about how this was never going to work, and she has to take care of herself. And then by the time he was released from the hospital, she was gone. Left him a letter, further explaining her side of things, maybe revealing more than he'd picked up on…

But she was gone, so he tried to spend his energy on feeling guilty.

"Yeah, you disappeared pretty quick there." He says, trying his best to dodge her comment.

She acknowledges that he doesn't say it back, and appears to think that maybe it was just a shot, because she bites her lip, and looks down briefly.

"I was thinking now, that I'm back, maybe we could get coffee sometime. Talk about… everything."

He's about to answer her, say, something, and then he sees Andy appear from the end of one of the aisles, face wash in hand, and a smile fading.

She knows its Marlo even though her back is to her, and then she suddenly doesn't know what to do with herself. Should she look at something on the magazine rack? Should she go and say hi.

She slows down, while deciding, and watches as Sam scratches the back of his neck, and grimaces a little. It's obvious that he's under a little bit of scrutiny. He's uncomfortable or bugged. Though he's got his 'guilty' face on.

She watches him say something, eyes finding hers after, and she only realizes that she came to a complete stop when Marlo turns to look at her too. She sees a glimmer of disappoint in her eyes, but then she smiles politely, and waves just small, and Andy returns it, moving her feet once again.

"I should have known." Marlo laughs looking back to Sam before McNally gets in ear shot, without any real hint that she's humoured by it, but she keeps a nice smile. "It was always her."


	39. Period

Prompt: Can you do Andy picking Bella up early from school and Sam freaking out a bit because he thinks she is sick when in reality she started her period or something like that

* * *

"I can't remember the last time we were home in the middle of the day, alone." Sam says, bringing the last of the grocery bags into the house, Andy already unpacking in the kitchen.

"Has to have been before Bella was born." Andy laughs, not remembering either.

Five kids, all in school now. They'd talked about what they'd do when all their kids were in school, and it used to upset Andy to think of all of her babies growing up. But now that the time had come, she looked forward to getting to do chores and housework while they were gone. That way their evenings could be spent together. And time alone with her husband… she wanted a little of that.

"Yep." He agreed putting the bags with the others by the fridge. He snuck up on Andy, wrapping his arms around her waist and wasting no time attaching his lips to her exposed neck. He liked it when she wore her hair up sometimes, but god it was a tease.

"Saaam…" She whines, half complaining, half urging him to keep at it. He hums, almost in the tune of a question, but doesn't stop, and she doesn't put up more protest.

But then the landline rings and she has to untangle herself from him completely to bring her head back down to earth.

"Hello?" She sings, giving Sam a 'this isn't over look' from across the kitchen as he continues to unpack the produce.

He shakes his head and goes back to it.

"Oh, okay, Bella. Calm down. Sweetie, go to the nurses office. I'll be there in ten minutes I promise. Please calm down Bells everything will be okay." She says quietly, but quietly enough to keep off Sam's radar.

He looks up waiting for her to turn around and explain. But when she does face him she looks calm, and just walks around him grabbing the keys out of the dish next to the fridge.

"Andy! What's going on, is she okay?" He asks, putting down the vegetables, and following his wife's path to the front door. "Why is she crying?"

He looks so concerned, but now is not the time, Bella needs her, so she grabs a pair of shorts off the top of the laundry basket that she'd left sitting on the couch, and shoves them into her purse.

"She's fine Sam, I should be back in half an hour." She says, leaning into to kiss him quickly before taking off out the door.

Everything happened so quickly that he's planted there, staring at the door, worried sick about his little girl. But he trusts that Andy will explain, he just wishes she would've let him come.

They're back forty five minutes later, and Sam's been pacing for fifteen, afraid of why they might be late.

But as they come in the door, Sam hugs his daughter tightly, smoothing a hand over her hair asking is she's alright. When she pulls away, he notices her red embarrassed cheeks, and notices that she doesn't look sick at all, and he pulls a puzzled face, wondering why she looks so awkward and uncomfortable.

Andy notices that Bella's at a loss for words, so she hands her the plastic bag at her side.

"Bella why don't you go up to your room, I'll be up in a minute." She says softly, hand on her daughters back to guide her away.

Sam waits until his daughter's bedroom is shut before throwing his hands up in a questioning manner.

"What the hell is going on?" He asks, confused, and a little ticked that he's out of the loop.

"She got her period at school okay?" Andy says, hoping that maybe he can grasp why Bella wasn't willing to offer that information to her father.

"Her… period? She's too young. She's a kid!"

"She's thirteen Sam." Andy smiles, acknowledging that this means big change for what's coming with their daughter.

"Exactly, a kid, too young."

"I got mine when I was twelve." Andy says, letting him know she's not abnormal, and hoping he doesn't suggest that to Bella. "Look, she's embarrassed, she's scared. It's a rite of passage but it's a very confusing time for her. I have a lot to talk to her about, but when she's settled and feeling better, I promise you and I will talk."

She kisses his cheek and hangs her purse back in its place on the coat rack.

"What do you mean, I know how it works!" He insists, feeling a little infantilized.

Andy smiles, thinking it's hard for him not to be with Bella when he knows she's going through something.

"You know how it is for a woman. Bella's about to go through a lot of firsts. She's not used to the hormones, or cramping, or any of it. This is going to be a tough year."


	40. Nightmare

Prompt: Hi there, how about ficlet where Sam has a nightmare about something frim his childhood and when he tries to shrug it off Andy learns that she doesn't need to push him because if she just STAYS, if she shows him she won't be scared off by his demons, he'll share on his own and it will comfort him. Something where Andy realizes that she made lots of mistakes too. Thanks

A jab to her kidney wakes her up in the middle of the night in a panic. She sits straight up confused, hair messy and crazy, and eyes still closed. She pushes her hair out of her face and eventually she opens her eyes and they adjust to the darkness rather quickly.

And then she feels another jab. Sam's elbow. She leans over to the bedside table and turns it on, bathing the room in a low and softer light, hoping it'll help bring Sam out of his deep sleep. Deciding that maybe it's best not to wake him in the physical throes of it, she waits till he's still again to rub his arm and say his name, urging him to awaken.

"Sam?" She whispers once he jolts and his eyes open.

His eyes dart around checking out the ceiling and everything else he can see from where his head rests on the pillow, and she watches his Adam's apple bob as he swallows hard, still breathing hard from the dream. Nightmare.

"Hey, just breathe, it was just a dream." She says, moving her hand to his chest as he scrubs a hand over his face and sits up, scooting back a little to lean up against the headboard for a moment.

Andy leaves her hand on his chest, inadvertently feeling the scary fast beat of his heart. She scratches her hand there just a little, trying to bring his focus to her. It's only natural to wonder what has him so panicked, it's not a lot of things that can frighten Sam.

He looks over at her after closing his eyes for a beat, knowing the look she'll give, the questions she'll ask. He feels like he needs to tell her, because they did promise that things would be different this time. But right now? He's not sure that he can.

When he does look to her, he sees the concern he expected, but the expectation is missing. She doesn't look like she wants to say anything at all, she just keeps running a stray finger nail up and down his chest. Concerned. He loves that about her.

He may have used "emotional sponge" to describe her once or twice, but…

It feels good to have someone care that much. To have someone right there to lean on, or empathize. To have someone hurt simply because you hurt, because it worked both ways. It made him happy see her happy. When something made her cry, he wanted to hurt it.

When the silence between them lingers for a while longer, until Andy sits all the way up, and lifts the comforter to throw her leg over him and straddle his lap. She moves her hands to his shoulders, and leans her forehead down, resting it against his while her hands slide up to his face.

Once they're there, she looks at him like she wants to speak, but in the end comes up empty and leans in for a kiss. And he gives her that, because it's the only way she knows how to help him right now. It's the only thing he can think of that can take his mind off of his dream.

So he kisses her, and rests his hands on her hips, trying to prevent her from grinding down any more. He wants to be distracted, but he wants to keep his wits, and he doesn't think he can be gentle right now.

And then he has to break away. When his mind doesn't stop racing, he brings his hands up to where hers are, still cradling his face, and brings them down between their bodies.

She leans away a little, sliding her pelvis a little further back on his thighs when she realizes that's not where things are headed.

"C'mere." He says, patting the spot next to him, where she'd been before, and she obliges, sliding off of him, but staying close.

She curls into his side and rests her head on his shoulder while his side opens up and arm moves around, holding her there against him.

He takes a deep breath, knowing that this is what he needs. He needs her to know.

"Did I ever tell you about my dad?"


	41. Blind Date

Prompt: Hey can u write a ficlet where Andy is on a blind date curiosity of Traci and Sam secretly and purposely ruins it cause he's jealous? Thx

* * *

"So Traci told me you just wrapped up your probationary period as a rookie? That's gotta feel good." Jake smiles, handing her a bottle of beer and sliding into the booth next to her.

"Yeah, six months as a fully fledged conowp." She confirms, nodding, and bringing the bottle to her lips right away. Conversation has flowed, he's nice, handsome, pretty funny... But there's just something missing.

She told Traci she wasn't ready. She wasn't ready with her equestrienne instructor, and she wasn't ready now either.

 _"Trace, I'm not going to make one of your friends my rebound."_

 _"That's the best part, we're not that close!"_

 _"Look, it's just, rebounds aren't my thing."_

 _"Well they're gonna have to be for you to move onto Sam..."_

 _"What?!"_

Yeah, so, maybe she thought it over a little and maybe Traci was right. She wasn't ready for Sam, but maybe a rebound. Just a fun meaningless night, whatever happens, happens.

Sam was already there when they walked in, and after giving him a brief smile and wave, she felt Jake's hand on the small of her back and basically jumped away from him. She told him she felt a draft from the door and got a shiver, but the fact that Sam's eyes were on her but it was not his hand...

It freaked her out.

"So, uh, your training officer haze the crap out of you when you were a rookie?" He laughs, probably figuring she was with a stereotypical donut patrol cop.

"Not too much. Typical coffee runs, doing all of his paperwork..." She looks around the bar again, as subtly as she can manage, until she finds Sam again. "He never let me drive."

He's over at the pool table, racking the balls to start a game, and Oliver is standing at a table nearby with a cue in his hands too. His eyes light up with amusement when he catches her watching him, and before she knows it, he's on his way over to her table.

He plants his palms firmly on the edge of the table, leaning down pretty close. Close enough that she can smell his after shave, and she wants to hug him until it clings to her own sweater.

"McNally, Oliver and I need a couple more, you and your friend up for a game?" He asks, cocky smile tugging at his lips. All it takes is the quirk of his eyebrow, and she bites, accepting the challenge.

She looks to Jake as an afterthought, asking him if he's up for it, and once he smiles and assures her he's got some skills, she blushes, feeling extremely awkward being flirted with in front of Sam.

"Maybe I'll even give you a couple tips." He smiles, implying the classic date move. Sliding up behind her, and framing her shot, being sure to get pretty close.

She thinks she should find it cute, but it just seems cheesy.

Sam and Oliver are obviously a team, leaving her with Jake, which makes sense to her. But she sucks. She really could some pointers...

She just, kinda wants Sam to show them to her.

"McNally, I gotta say that's pretty poor form. Thought I taught you better." He mock scolds her, feigning shame.

"Well, my training officer must have failed me as a teacher." She bites back, wanting to put a bit of a hurting on his ego.

Not that it ever works.

"Guess I should rectify that." He says, handing Oliver he's cue, and walking around the table to her.

She feels her breath catch briefly as she realizes what's about to happen.

She knows she should stop him, she is on a date. Sort of. But his damn aftershave just smells too good.


	42. Waterlogged

Prompt: I adore the way you write Sam (and Andy). Any chance of a future ficlet where Andy inadvertently finds out about the water-boarding and it finally hits home to her why he was so upset that she left during the suspension.

* * *

"Watching you get shot was the most… it was so hard." She says, not really sure why she feels the need to talk about it _now_.

She's curled up against his side, bare skin on bare skin for the first time in what feels like forever.

Maybe it's because sex has always been so life affirming for her in the past. The first time they kissed it was one of those moments, so. Maybe she's not crazy.

"I've pulled you out of rubble, seen you get shot, and I-" He stops, exhaling audibly and licking his lips, giving himself a little time before he continues on. "I found you in the basement of a hotel, holding a bomb. Believe me, I know the feeling."

Andy looks up at him with her Bambi eyes, realizing that they were on very different levels here and maybe he had a point. But she can't help that it scared the hell out of her.

"When I didn't know where you were when you went missing, with Brennan, I imagined the worst. I never thought I could be more scared. I mean, I was terrified that you were on the bottom of lake Ontario." She burrows into his hold a little more, if possible, feeling exposed.

Well, she's naked but-

Emotionally.

Sharing all of this was an admittance of just how screwed they'd be if they lost each other. She knows he loves her, and her him, but the idea that a single persons death could destroy everything is another concept completely.

"Sure felt like I was." He laughs humorlessly, remembering the horror of the way his lungs contracted and flooded slowly.

And then everything… everything takes a turn for the worse.

When he realizes what he said, he feels Andy tense in his arms, and he tips his head back against the headboard, letting out a sigh.

"What?" She asks, horrified and panicked all of a sudden.

She pulls herself up a little on her arm, and her eyes are wide and scared, her mouth open just a little. Her hair is falling all around her face, and as bad as he wants to tuck it behind her ear…

He wishes she was as predictable as the rest of the people he knew. He wishes he would have stopped himself from saying it. He wishes he knew that she'd immediately jump to the right conclusion.

Sam tightens his jaw and his eyebrows furrow, and he removes his arm from around her, just needing a little distance if they're going to do this.

"Andy please don't make that face." He nearly begs. Those eyes break him.

"He water boarded you?"

"It was two years ago…"

"You never told me." She accuses, feeling like of all the things he held back or kept inside this was somehow worse because she had been a part of it. Or a factor in it. Turns out she didn't really know as much about it as she thought.

"Well that night, I was just happy to be alive. And then the next morning you left and you… didn't come back." He says, trying as hard as he can to keep his past anger in the past.

But that abandonment, that emptiness he felt…

It was his worst fear come to light. That he'd have her, and then one day he just wouldn't anymore. She'd be gone. Because deep down he always felt that he didn't deserve the kind of happiness she brought him.

Waking up to an email and a message on his phone…

He strokes her arm, trying to reassure her that he doesn't want to fight over this. Tonight of all nights he wishes it would just stay in the past, and her face softens a little in a silent agreement.

But it doesn't sit well with her.

Looking into his eyes she sees that night coming back to him. She's remembering the way he treated her, when she came home. How she thought everything would just fall into place…

But it's different now. Everything. He was so guarded, and now she knows why.

He's been the strongest and most stable man in her life for most of her time as a cop, but even he had been brought to his knees. Even he had felt insecure and scared, and she let it happen. She picked up on a terrible habit, and left everything, hoping it could be the same when she came home.

Twice.

She curls back into his side, and then throws an arm over his chest, splaying her hand between his pecs, and a leg over his.

He feels physically close, but there's something else there.

But having seen the fear and concern in her eyes as all of it washed over her, he knew that she felt the same when it happened to her. He knows they've both been on the receiving end, and it has been one of the worst feelings he's ever known. Looking at her now, he knows it's the same for her.

"I'm so sorry."

Her story begins and ends with him.

So he rests his arm around her again and presses a kiss to her head, hoping that she can just let go of this new information until tomorrow.

"I love you."

Hearing it the second time… it's better than the first.


	43. Oliver in the Shower

Prompt: Hey, how about a ficlet where Andy thinks Sam's in the lockerroom having a shower and she has a whole conversation with him and it turns out to be Oliver. Heehee

* * *

"Sam!" Andy calls into the seemingly empty men's locker room.

She's showered, and ready to go but Sam said that he wanted to change before heading home. Interrogating someone they had in the drunk tank was always a bit of risk, and they often feigned nausea to get away. Sam did not take this guy seriously.

She spots his bag on the bench, and makes her way over to it, and sets hers down next to it. She considers sitting and waiting for him there, but the shower is running and she's wondering why it's taking him twenty five minutes to get out of the station.

"C'mon Sam. It never takes you this long to shower." She calls, walking even further into the dressing room, towards the steam rolling away from the showers.

A smirk reaches her face as she gets to the wall entrance, and she leans against it.

"Least it doesn't take you this long when you shower alone…"

She scuffs her boot against to floor, inhaling Sam's body gel as it fills the air, and almost wants to strip down and shower again.

(They'd done it before, in the women's locker room.)

But there's too much that has to be done with what little is left of the day.

"I wanted to stop at the farmers market on the way home. We're out of apricots. Sarah was telling me on the long weekend about this jam that your mom used to make when you guys were kids, and I was thinking I'd give it a shot." She says, waiting for a comment on her ability to surprise him, or how she might start a small fire in the kitchen, but she's met with silence.

"So. Yeah, and if you could try and get a couple loads of laundry done that'd be great. I meant to switch over the loads from last night before work, but then… well you were there. We did _not_ get out of bed." She smiles, hoping to plant a seed for later.

Not even a chuckle.

She pushes herself off of the wall, and folds her arms over her chest honestly a little worried that he's slipped and fallen.

Broken a hip.

The water turns off so she gives it one last shot thinking maybe he couldn't hear her the whole time.

"Babe?" She calls, knowing that in itself should get a rise out of him. He was not one for pet names. Sweetheart was reversed for special cases. "I was thinking maybe we should get a cat. Keep Boo company while we're gone all day."

"That's ridiculous, you know I hate cats." A voice says from behind her.

She screams, understandably, and then finally a chuckle comes from the shower. Glancing first over her shoulder to see her husband picking up their bags and walking toward her, then to the showers, Oliver pokes his head out from behind the divider that had been obscuring her view the whole time.

"Hey Babe." He chortles, disappearing again probably waiting for her and Sam to clear out.

Sam's laughing too, probably overheard more of this than she knew, so she turns around and slaps him on the arm when he tries to tuck her into his side. She's not really mad, just embarrassed, and Sam has to drag her away before she can begin a stream of apologies and explanations for Oliver.

"Where the hell were you, I thought you were taking a shower!?"

"I was, and then Nash needed me for a couple of minutes." He explains, pushing open the door to let them out into the hall. "So I left my bag and let Oliver use my shampoo and stuff."

As she breathes and focuses on getting as far away from the change room as possible, the embarrassment begins to fade, and she sinks into Sam's side a little, reluctantly.

Enough time passes and she thinks maybe, just maybe Sam's not going to hold this one over her head. And yet…

"So…. my best friend and my wife."


	44. Poker Night

Prompt: Feels like you're kind of over the angsty stuff but I'm going to pull you back in. The first poker game after Jerry dies.

* * *

He wasn't sure how to bring it up. It'd been three months now…

But maybe it was still too soon. Maybe it was over now, no one had really said anything about it. Not a word.

But the first Thursday of the month was fast approaching, and he was tired of his usual routine. He was so, so bored.

He'd joked about Andy being a thorn in his side for so long, maybe he forgot how much light she brought into his life. How she kind of _was_ his life. For a while there.

Cruz is nice though. They get along. Similar in a lot of ways. Pragmatic, logical, smart, sarcastic. It's kind of nice that an easy friendship has formed between them…

But he also misses how things were. Still.

So that's when he approaches Oliver. Decides he doesn't want it to be a big deal, so he casually asks him one morning before parade starts.

"Poker night at my place on Thursday."

And by asks, he means tells.

And so Oliver spread the word, a few detectives and other officers came. What was different was that Dov came. Without Diaz, which really confused the hell out of Sam. The guy had a kid, but he could remember a time when they would've been foaming at the mouth to get in on poker night. Now Dov's just kind of… there. Talking exclusively to Oliver, being oddly anti-social.

He decides not to pry. Kid'll buck up when the game gets started.

But he doesn't. And Sam doesn't really either.

They're laughing, and joking, and it seems normal. But the fact that Jerry isn't there…

It will never be the same without Jerry. Sam has to come to terms with it, but he was not expecting it to be this difficult to laugh along. He no longer has his one person that he can read better than anyone at the table. Maybe Oliver, but the guy has been having a good streak all night.

The next time Sam's out, he gets up from the table and goes off into the kitchen, taking some empty bowls and bottles with him. Not too long after, Epstein follows.

"It's different." Dov says, after grabbing a new beer from the fridge.

"What is?"

"I dunno… this. It's different than I thought it'd be." He's scratching at the bottles label, slowly, a tell that there's more on his mind than that. They don't have that kind of relationship though. "Everything, too."

Sam nods. It's true, slowly but surely fifteen division has changed, and not in the way that any of them had anticipated. With Jerry gone, McNally gone… Traci buckling down on work, Sam taking the D's exam…

Their worlds have done a complete 180.

"Chris is a dad. It's insane. Traci's a detective, Nick and Andy are-" He stops himself, realizing who's house he's in and decides to just gesture randomly. "I feel like I got left behind."

Yeah, Sam knows what that's like, so he just nods, leaning back against his own counter.

He's about to impart some words of wisdom… he doesn't know what. Just kind of hope the right thing comes out.

 _"I don't want anything to happen to you."_

 _"Stay."_

 _"All I wanted was you."_

But then of course, the natives grow restless.

"Sammy! Get back here, I'm on the streak of a lifetime. Izzy wants a car for graduation!"


	45. Frisky

Prompt: request with sam and andy on the way to the penny and once they get they get there they make out in sam's truck and gets caught

* * *

"Andy…" He breathes, once she finally detaches her mouth from his, needing a little air. He's about to suggest that they finally go inside, but then she raises the console/middle seat and crawls across, limbs only a little awkwardly bent.

He furrows his eyebrows, mouth open, breathing a little heavy, but he says nothing. He watches her as she climbs on top of him, straddling, legs on either side of his thighs, zipper to zipper.

A glint in his dark eyes tell her that she's on dangerous grounds, but she doesn't move an inch, she just brings her face a little closer to his, baiting him. She doesn't want a lecture later about having started it. So she leaves that up to him.

And he doesn't disappoint. A hand threaded through her hair grabs the back of her skull, bringing her the rest of the way to him, taking complete control.

She smiles against his mouth, and since it gives him little to work with, he uses his tongue to prompt her mouth open a little more, smile fading in the process.

His hand on the back of her head gives him all the control and she gets a little antsy, and rocks her hips forward only a little. The reaction is immediate; a throaty groan, and a small seemingly helpless buck of his own hips.

He pulls back, laughing a little and shakes his head, dropping his hand from his hair, and moving both hands to her hips.

"Don't start something you can't finish McNally." He breathes, no indication of wanting to stop himself.

She quirks an eyebrow and studies his lips for a brief moment, hands moving from their spot on his chest, downward. She leans forward a little, getting her mouth right next to his ear, her own breath still a little heavy.

"I never said you weren't gonna finish."

He feels her hands on his belt buckle, and he chuckles head falling back against the seat, amazed that he's still amazed by her.

She stretches forward, catching his lips in hers again, her tongue seeking his while she pulled the belt all the way out of his jeans. She's about to return her hands to his zipper when a knock on his window interrupts.

Andy pulls back from him with a startle, and is about to throw herself off of him into the passenger seat, but he holds her there. She feels that maybe there'd be an embarrassing display for whoever it is disturbing them.

He smoothes a thumb over the bare spot of her hip above her jeans where is hand is holding her still, and rolls down the window just a little. It got kind of steamy.

Andy drops her head to hide in his neck when she sees Oliver's shit eating grin through the small crack. She whimpers, anticipating that this won't be lived down.

"You two gonna join us, or should I put my sock on the hood? You know, just a decorative ornament."


	46. Second First Date

Prompt: Sam and Andy's first official date :)

* * *

A drive in. It's inspired really. He figured this would be just her kind of thing. And it's not dinner in some quiet stiff restaurant, which isn't really them, so she's happy.

 _"Don't take me somewhere I'll need to wear a dress that requires me to sit up straight."_

 _"What?"_

 _"Wrinkles, I don't want to be worried about wrinkles. Just… somewhere I can wear pants, okay?"_

Lying in the flat bed of the truck on an inflatable mattress on a warm summer night… that's pretty them. He brought a couple of blankets - it's a double feature and it's still pretty early in the evening, but it'll cool off. And he had been concerned about bugs, but he also didn't want to dig out and wash the trucks canopy. And McNally's used to camping, maybe she would be immune to it.

But it's just breezy enough to keep the bugs away, but the heat of the day is still lingering in the air, keeping them warm.

He brought her favourite selection of movie candy, which she fawned over, giving him a look of love and adoration, and then digging right in, popping open the fuzzy peaches.

She was like a kid, bright eyes, big smile that stretched across her face. Typical McNally kept thanking and kissing him, to the point where it was almost too much.

(Who is he kidding, it would never be too much.)

But when it comes time to burrow down and pay attention to the screen, she's still paying homage to his neck.

(Honestly, it wouldn't be the first time a sweet and innocent gesture turned her on. Always made her a little horny when he was sweet.)

"McNally, movie's starting."

She 'hmm's' against his neck, not detaching herself. He wants to roll his neck and cut off her access, but she's already reached his jaw, and is travelling North.

"Andy, you have to stop. We are not doing this at a drive in." He says firmly, insisting that out of all the places they'd gotten away with it, this wouldn't be one of them.

"But you brought us a bed." She breathes between kisses, then taking his earlobe between her teeth.

She's pressed into his side, and fortunately, his arm is around her, so if she tries to make a move, he can hold her down…

But they are at the back of the fleet. And they're raised up… most of the other vehicles are cars…

But then a mom in the car next to them reprimands her kids, reminding Sam that this isn't going to happen here. It can't.

They are respectable officers of the law.

Most of the time…

But it is a movie. And, you know, necking is implied.

He pulls her face away from the magic she's working on his ear, and forces her to focus on his face.

"Above the waist only McNally."


	47. Sam Wakes Up

Prompt: Sam wakes up from in the hospital (maybe a day or two later) and Andy is entertaining his niece and/or nephew in the corner of the room. Sarah...I don't know, went for coffee or food and will be right back?

* * *

"So McNally." Sam smiles.

"Yeah?" She answers softly. He only woke up after surgery yesterday, and it's the first time they're getting to sit down alone, with him all there.

"That really happened right?" He asks, reaching over into her lap to grab her hand.

"Did you really get shot? Yes. Yes you did." She jokes, not too seriously, she doesn't know if it's too soon for him or not. "You've got the extra belly button to prove it."

He chuckles lightly, staring at her smile.

"No. Andy, the other stuff. The uh… story." He asks, leaving it there. It's important that he knows he didn't imagine her telling him she loved him, but it's probably better to just test the waters.

"Yeah, yeah it did." She says carefully, not sure exactly where it is that he wants to go, but she's thankful that it's his turn to lead.

He nods accordingly, letting that sink in, maybe play it back in his head.

"Then I guess it's my turn to tell you a story."

She raises her eyebrows, intrigued, wondering exactly what memory he was going to draw on here. What about them he wanted to say.

"It was about four months after you came home, and we were partnered together. As usual. And we were responding to a domestic." He starts, staring at their joined hands. He's actually just reveling in feeling her touch again. He was frustrated in the ambulance, his skin was clammy and cool, he could only feel the weight of her hand. Not how smooth her touch is, not it's warmth.

"And we were getting the dad to call someone else to stay with for a while the mom gave her statement. And you were sitting with the kids…"

"I remember." She confirms, willing him to continue.

"And the little boy kept asking you all these questions about being a cop, it would've bugged anyone else the way he got up onto your lap and kept yammering on. But you just kept coming back with every answer. And his older sister knew exactly what was going on, she knew exactly how bad things were, but by the end of it, all three of you were smiling, and I just-" He stops, having run away from his own train of thought.

She waits for him to be ready to say it, and squeezes his hand, letting him know she's still right there.

"I just started to strip away the uniform-"

"Sam!" She interrupts, shocked that that was the direction he took.

"No, Andy, I mean, I started imagining a different situation. _We_ weren't there in uniform, and it wasn't a strangers house, it was ours, and those kids looked a little more like you…" He says gently.

Andy's eyes widened with the realization of what he was saying.

"I started to realize, that you are my story too." He says, finally meeting her gaze. "I love you."


	48. The Hospital

Prompt: Love you so much- an idea/ Marlo comes to visit sam in the hospital just to stand outside the room while watching Andy and Sam joking around, and leaving just as Sam notices her watching... Also you're awesome

* * *

"Okay, we have poker, movies, newspaper, books, board games, and…. drum roll please! Andy McNally presents, her high school yearbook." Andy says, pulling it out from behind her back. "Grade twelve year, embarrassing sports photos, all the signatures from my classmates, I mean, this book would give you hours of material."

Sam smiles, from his dimpled grin to his eyes, genuinely happy with her efforts to entertain, and then he looks at the bags of things she's brought.

"You know I'll be out in a week right? I'm not moving in." He laughs.

She nods, like that's completely irrelevant and waves her book around in front of her, trying to remind him that he has a choice to make.

He points to the year book, afraid that if she opens one of the many bags, the rest will follow and the room will be a disaster. Plus, hours of material to tease her? Yeah that's pretty appealing.

She smiles, and walks over to the bed, and he moves enough that she can lay down with him, get very close and cuddle-y, her resting in the crook of his arm.

She held up the book for them both, and opened the cover page so that he could get a good look at the signatures and messages that were left for her.

Most of them were generic and simple, but others were extremely heartfelt and touching. He wonders how many of those people she talks to today, and imagines that it's not many.

She flips around stopping every once in a while to tell him a story about the groups and clubs, or teachers. And then they arrive to her senior class portraits. She warned him that she wasn't always as put together as she is now, but when he sees the photo, he realizes he was not prepared.

"That is _attractive_!" He exclaims, tugging the book from her hands, trying to commit the photo to memory.

"Hey! I was really sick!" She defends, remembering just how ill she'd been. "I had a really bad cold."

He takes in her bulbous nose, red eyes, and pale skin… but to top it off she looks as though she was about to sneeze. It doesn't surprise him when she reveals that she was sick the day of retakes.

She snatches the book from his hands and moves off of the bed, deciding it's provided enough entertainment, as she moves past the door he catches a glimpse of someone in the window.

Marlo had been standing there a good ten minutes. Watching them laugh, and smile at each other, as though he hadn't just been shot. As though, as though she hadn't been a part of his life only weeks ago. She'd been sure that McNally was attached to Collins… but maybe it wasn't what it seemed. God knows she and Sam weren't. At least not after Andy got back.

She knew this would happen, but she didn't predict that-

She didn't think she'd fall for him so easily. Almost doesn't blame Andy…

But that, right there, is what she wanted with him, but would never have. Because she thought that distance would be her friend.

Sam's eyes follow Andy with a loving look, and then they catch hers as Andy passes in front of the door. She stays for a half second too long and is able to catch a look of concern on his face… or something like that. Guilt maybe, which kills her.

So she takes off down the hallway, knowing as well as she did back at the station, that very night, that it's all over. It had been over for a very long time.


	49. Neutered

Prompt: Prompt from Becca: Sam and Andy arguing over getting Boo neutered. Sam says no, Andy doesn't see why it's a big deal.

* * *

"You can't do it McNally." Sam argues, closing the door to the house once Boo is through. "It's a part of who he is."

Andy rolls her eyes and drops her head back as she stalks toward the kitchen, wanting to be done with this conversation already.

"Most dogs get neutered, it's perfectly normal, he'll be fine." She responds, pulling open the fridge door in search of a snack.

Something about nagging each other always gives her the munchies. She keeps the house pretty well stocked these days, hiding all kind of goodies from Sam. She always gets lectured on diabetes and her teeth rotting. Makes her feel like a kid again.

"So it'd be normal if I just went out and got a vasectomy right now? You'd have no issues with that?"

She knows he's bluffing, so she shrugs her shoulders, giving the air that she really wouldn't.

"Your choice."

And this girl. Over the last couple of years she's gotten better about not taking the bait. He was always afraid of this.

A few seconds after entering the kitchen, she put a piece of toast in the toaster and was now staring at the machine waiting for it to pop up while he mustered another attempt at making her see.

"He's a man! You can't just snip him up."

"He's a dog, Sam."

Sam's not all that clear on why he feels so strongly about this, but Boo doesn't have a voice, so he figured he'd lend his.

He watches as she snatches the piece of toast once it's done and retrieves the margarine from the fridge.

"What is the benefit? He'll be beside himself. You can't turn a dog into a eunuch."

"Uh, he won't run around humping everything in sight. Include our legs."

So maybe he's complained about it before, but he's willing to subject his furniture and McNally to it if it means the dog gets to keep his pride.

"It's castration."

"Well I'm sorry that I don't want him running off and impregnating the neighbor's dog, okay? One pregnancy is enough for this household." She says, exasperated.

In the moment, she doesn't even realize what she's said. Not until he fails to fight back. She looks about from the toast she's buttering and his face is completely shell shocked.

Oh right, that.

"You're… Are we?"

"I'm not sure yet. I'm just late… and I've been a little nauseous… and hungry, and my boobs really hurt."

"Yeah, I know." He laughs, no joke between them though. She's been wearing her sports bra a lot is all.

A smile starts to tug at the sides of his mouth, and then his teeth are bared, and her heart warms up to the fact that he's warming up to the idea.

So maybe that's why she felt so strongly about Boo getting taken care of. It's enough for her to wrap her brain around the idea that she might be pregnant, but that's more than enough responsibility for now.

"I guess maybe I should book an appointment?" She asks, as if he could say no and she could just keep ignoring it.

He figures that maybe since she's going to give him of the greatest gifts of all, she can have this fight.

"One for you. One for Boo."

Or any other damn thing she wants.


	50. Radio

Prompt: Sam and Andy are back together but it's on the down low until Sam overhears at the station that they can't reach Andy on her radio. His panic gives him away.

* * *

They haven't really told anyone that they're back together. They don't really have to anyway, people put two and two together, and…

Well that makes four. Makes sense, common knowledge, easy math.

They keep professional at work, as they used to. It's a little harder now. They don't spend all day in each others' company so there's a little more temptation when their in an observation room, watching Traci interrogate.

They try to stay on opposite sides of the room, but they always find themselves inching closer and closer together. His hand will brush hers, she'll hook a finger around his, and then an interruption of some kind will makes its timely intrusion, reminding them of their jobs. And that they have all the time in the world… after shift.

He's rolling in the mornings with a spring in his step that Oliver finds highly amusing. So much so that he comments on it often. More than a weekly basis. Because let's be honest, a year of being apart, they have a lot to make up for. _A lot_.

Especially if he's planning on those Sundays in the park. They've got to get on being a better them.

So it's another typical morning; he walks through the parking lot, get's his chirp from Oliver.

Sits in the back of parade, cause Nash is running a little late this morning. He might as well sit tight and listen to what everyone else is up to. Might as well watch McNally goofing off with Peck in the wings. Waits for Frank to bust her, announce that their doing a presentation at one of the high schools, and slips out.

And the day continues on normally. Epstein and Diaz bring him a suspect from a robbery a few days earlier, so he buckles down and shuts himself in an observation room, thinking it wouldn't be too tough.

By the time he gets them a confession, it's about lunchtime, and he's feeling pretty good.

Until he goes out into the station.

Chaos, everywhere.

Officers running out at full speed, off to claim cruisers, and he finds himself backing into the wall to avoid being collateral damage.

He sees a smooth surface among the heads of hair walking away from him, and calls out for Oliver, wanting an update on what's going on. Oliver turns, moving against the officers to get to Sam, and Sam looks around the bullpen, checking to see if there's an amber alert on the monitors. There isn't.

"What's going on?" He asks, clearly, and suitably bewildered.

"Lock down at St. Mary's." He says, eyes full of sympathy, and concern for the news that should hit his brother in three… two…

"Andy. McNally and Peck…" Is all he manages to get out. Lock downs were usually nothing. Sometimes just a crime in the area, so he stares, eyebrows furrowed, waiting for the scoop, still.

"It's bad, Sammy. Peck radioed that there were shots fired, and McNally was on the other side of the school. She's not answering her radio."

Sam's face falls completely as it hits him, takes him totally by surprise that she's trapped in a building with a gunman.

Suddenly every news report of shootings in the last couple of years plague his mind. All of them. The amount of people, innocent people. No one's going to think twice about her. She's in a uniform. Enemy number one. She's a walking target.

The heavy and hollowed beat of his heart pounds in his ears, and he feels Oliver grab his arm and then they're walking out of the station, and they're in the parking lot.

He goes through the motions, getting into the car, strapping himself in.

"If she can't answer her radio, and she's not calling-" He says, barely above a whisper.

"She's gonna be just fine. Sam. She's gotta be."


	51. Meeting the Parent

Prompt: Thank you for all your ficlets, they're amazing! And a ficlet request: Sam and Andy's first meeting with Tommy after they getting back together. Emotional and fluffy pls

"You sure you're okay?" She asks, closing the trucks door.

"Yeah McNally, I'm a big boy, I can handle myself." He laughs, coming to meet her on her side and escort her up the steps to the house.

"Okay, but you realize this isn't just a disgruntled dad of your girlfriend, right?" She asks, stepping in front of him, walking backward, her hand still in his.

He smirks though, confident that she's just nervous for no reason, but she presses on.

"This is my father, a retired homicide detective. He has a lot more experience in the bad cop department than you." She reminds him. "Very good in interrogations."

Sam seems to consider it for a moment, but shakes it off. He stops on the path leading up to Tommy's door, and she gets pulled back to him. He brings the hand he was holding to his lips as if to reassure her somehow, but she rolls her eyes, and yanks it away, tired of trying to warn the seemingly unshakeable Sam Swarek.

"Your funeral," She huffs, knocking on his door.

Sam bounds up the steps to be next to her, and he stares at her face that is so concentrated on the door in front of them. Suddenly he wonders if he should be nervous…

Before he can process that and come to a conclusion, Tommy's footsteps on the other side of the door get closer, until they come to a stop and the door begins to open. And yeah, now Sam's a little nervous.

"Hi Dad." She smiles, leaning in for a hug and kiss on the cheek. "How are you?"

"Just fine sweetheart." He replies, giving Sam quite the look over her shoulder.

As they pull apart from each other, Sam has to swallow the lump forming in his throat and kill the fear building inside him.

"Tommy," Sam says, sticking out a hand to be shaken, but Tommy merely looks at it, and then steps out of the doorway, silently inviting them in.

Andy looks between the two, knowing she'd been right, and grabs Sam's hand before leading him into the house.

She brings them to Tommy's living room, and takes a seat on the couch, and Sam figures he's to follow, so he sits, right next to her, reclaiming her hand in his.

"A half hour, okay? Just half an hour." Andy promises, pouring them each a cup of tea from the pot set up on the coffee table.

Tommy closes the front door, and makes his way into the room as well, sitting himself across from the two of them, a more menacing position.

"So, Andy, what's this about, if I don't already know…" He asks, bleakly.

"Dad. Sam and I are together, again, and I just thought you should know. I'm a grown up, I'm not asking your permission, I'm just telling you because I'm an adult, and I thought you'd like to know." She says, as she has to herself for the last two weeks. Speech prepared was always the way to go, because if she didn't have one, she'd drone on and on, revealing more about their previous relationship than he already knew.

Tommy nods, and sits back in his chair, thinking over her words, and studying Sam.

"Sweetheart, would you grab the cream from the fridge?" He asks, still staring at Sam.

"Dad-"

"Andy, please." He says, cutting her off.

Feeling 15 again, she releases Sam's hand and offers an apologetic look, before standing, and disappearing from the room.


	52. Labour and a Wedding

Prompt: You're so wonderful 3 just an idea, maybe Sam and the very pregnant andy are at celery and Oliver's wedding, and andy goes into labour during the vows :) and Sam starts freaking out and Oliver's just like "don't worry dude, it'll be cool" Love ya!

* * *

He looked damn good in a tux. It's been a little while since she's seen him in one. In fact, it was probably the night the little one kicking up a storm in her uterus right now was conceived. Some fancy pants event, she doesn't remember what exactly it was for… He had to go because he was a detective, she went because it was an excuse to put on a dress and eat food neither one of them had to make. Then it got boring. THEN he found the coat room.

But now she's sitting front row at Oliver's second wedding, watching her husband fulfil the best man duties, and keeping Oliver company till the song begins and Celery makes her way down the aisle. And when the violins begin to play, everyone turns to see Celery, watch her make her way to her awaiting fiancee, but Andy keeps her eyes forward. She watches Oliver's face closely, taking in the most beautiful vision he's seen, his bride, and watches as the emotions change from thankful to happy to excited, to nervous and back again. He's such a sap every other day of his life and today it's true too.

As Celery approaches the front, Andy finally turns to look to her and sighs. She looked the same she had only an hour ago when she left the bridal party to their champagne and makeup an hour ago. Swollen ankles, she declined Celery's offer to take part in the get-ready festivities, she just wanted to get comfortable for the afternoon ceremony. She wiggles around a little in her seat before the music ceases so she doesn't disrupt anything once the ceremony begins, but she's having a lot of trouble getting settled.

Some how she manages to keep still most of the way through the ceremony, and then the time for the vows comes around. Oliver speaks eloquently, saying sweet things about having thought that he couldn't be any happier in life, what with his fulfilling job, and three wonderful daughters, but having been wrong. Because Celery added so much to an already great and lucky life and made him the happiest he'd ever been.

She's about to lean over and ask Traci for a tissue, but the minute she slides a fraction of an inch on the wooden bench, she feels her water break.

She lets out a small and involuntary squeak, embarrassed and surprised, and stares down at her belly, thinking this can't be it, it's not time. And she's at a wedding! She's about to ask Traci what she should do when she looks up to the front to see Sam, Oliver, Celery and the rest of the groomsmen and bridesmaids watching her.

She grins, at Sam, and rubs her stomach, and his whole face goes just a little white, clearly not having been ready for that revelation. He's about to take a step down and rush to her, when Oliver grabs his shoulder.

"Labour lasts hours Sammy, you can spare five minutes."

She barely overhears the conversation, but she does, and he's right. She doesn't have to be in a rush of any kind, so she nods at Sam, reassuring him they're not in a hurry just yet.

It's true, and the ceremony goes on, but the whole time Celery's offering Oliver her vows, Sam is shifting his weight from foot to foot, restless. He pulls out his pocket watch at least three times a minute, and keeps looking at her like she's about to deliver right there on the church floor. And finally when the bride and groom kiss, and begin to make their way out of the church, Sam breaks out of his bestman stance, and goes to Andy helping her up.

"We've gotta get to the hospital. No, I've got to go home and get your bag, Traci can take you to the hospital-"

"Sam, you go see if she's ready to be checked in to the hospital, I will you go to your place and grab whatever you need." Traci says, softly and calmly, squeezing Andy's hand. "It's going to be fine."

They watch Traci make her way out of the church, rushing before the rest of the guests filter out, and then Sam turns to Andy, about to usher her out too, when she stops him by grabbing his hand.

"She's right, Sam, it's going to be just fine."


	53. Bike

Prompt: Ficlet request: Sam & Andy try to teach Bella how to ride a bike but Sam gets all over-protective of Bella.

* * *

"Okay baby! You can do it." Andy calls from her spot on the front steps of their house.

Today was the day Bella's training wheels were coming off. Andy had set Noah up in the driveway throwing his mini basketball into the Fisher Price hoop and she and the twins were bundled up on the porch, cheering her on. Andy rocked the carriers back and forth on either side of her as she watched Sam unscrew Bella's training wheels from her little red bike.

While her husband had been promising the last couple of weekends that they'd finally do it, the late spring rain made him think it wasn't safe. Even last night when she acknowledged that the streets were finally dry, he was still coming up with excuses.

 _"I think there's a crack in her helmet. She needs a new helmet and it's family day tomorrow so I can't just go out and get a new one." He'd sighed dramatically like it would tear apart the very fabric that is family day._

 _"Her helmet is fine, I put it with her bike after dinner. And all her pads are fine too." Andy said, rubbing her hands up and down his arms, trying to get him to relax about tomorrow. "Don't worry so much."_

 _She kissed him lightly, and went back picking up around the living room._

She watches Sam crouch down to Bella's level once the training wheels have successfully been removed and started fussing with her jacket. While inspecting the rest of her protective gear he keeps a tight little grin on his face, trying to be excited. But Andy can see his anxiety as he helps her up.

"C'mon Bella!" She cheers, clapping her cold hands together, trying to remind Sam that they're all there, and that nothing bad is going to happen.

Sam helps Bella up onto her seat, and reminds her that pushing the pedals backwards stops the bike and she appears bored and frustrated. She knows this already. Same bike, no training wheels.

Andy had been feeling pretty relaxed about the whole thing up until now. She's resting her weight on one foot while the other searches out the pedal. Sam has one strong hand on the back of her seat, and the other is resting on her back to keep her steady just in case.

She calls to Noah, getting his attention and telling him to watch his big sister, and Sam looks over his shoulder at them and smiles nervously, before walking alongside the bike. He runs down the street with her for quite awhile before Andy hears her yell for him to let go. Then finally he comes to a stop, raising his arms and resting his hands on the back of his head, watching her go off on her own for the first time.

 _"I hope you realize that this means she can actually get far away if she tries to run away from home."_


	54. Tommy

Prompt: Andy's dad dies and she says he's all I had left and Sam is all like you have me!❤️ Sam comforting Andy in this horrible time

* * *

She hasn't said a word in three days.

He sits with her, all day, and all night, hoping maybe it's time, but she stays silent. Her eyes are always wet and dark, her mouth a thin line, looks grim. When she looks at him, he thinks she's looking through him.

But the night it happened, the night she got the call… she screamed. Her body wracked with sobs. She clung to him, never wanting to let go, it seemed. It was like she was trying to crawl inside him to escape.

He'd never forget the way her body went limp when the doctor told her dad was in an accident and the injuries were too severe to save him.

Hit by a drunk driver. That's when she lost it.

And now she's curled up on her couch, staring mindlessly at the home movies Claire had brought her over a year ago.

 _"Claire, Claire, are you getting this?"_ A crackled voice comes from the speakers. It doesn't quite sound or look like Tommy, but that's who Sam recognizes it to be. _"My baby girls first steps! February 24th 1985, Andrea McNally walks. Look out world!"_

On the screen Tommy was holding a onesie clad baby Andy's hands as she stumbled around on her feet, nearly falling every few steps.

 _"Look at her go. My little girl, future track star."_

Sam walks into the room careful not to spook her, but he almost wishes he could. It'd be something more than the removed Andy.

He takes a seat in the middle of the couch, sitting right where her toes end. It takes her a few more minutes before she stretches her legs out on top of him, covering him in the blanket as well.

It's then that he looks up at her face, and sees that she has been crying again. A steady stream of tears have made their way, and are continuing to make their way down her face. Her eyes are no longer cold, but full of lose and sadness.

It's more than he can take, so he shuffles closer, and then pulls her into his lap, holding her tightly. He wishes he knew what to tell her, but he has a feeling there's nothing that can placate her, no words he can offer that would ever help take away her pain.

Her grief is a lot different than his. He pushed it away, thinking it happened, and there's nothing to do now but go on. She… she was drowning in it.

She whimpers a little when the on-screen Tommy scoops his laughing baby up off the ground and blows raspberries on her cheeks, and then her whimper becomes a sob.

She wraps her arms around Sam's neck, burying her face in his neck while he rubs her back, and sinks further into the couch.

"He's gone." She cries, like it's that first night all over again. "He's gone. He was all I had left."

She gets a little more hysterical after the words leave her mouth, and he kisses her head and tells her she's wrong.

Her crying doesn't quiet immediately, but she couldn't keep going like that forever, so eventually her tears were silent again.

"You have me." She hears him whisper into her hair. "I promise, you will always have me."


	55. The Night Nobody Slept

Prompt: can you write fluffy something about one of the kids waking up sam and andy because of a nightmare

* * *

Sam would swear that he had just fallen asleep when a sweaty palm came into contact with his cheek. His eyes pop open in alarm, and his hand comes up to catch it, without waking Andy who was still wrapped in his arms.

As his eyes focus in the dark and over his wife's still body, he sees three year old Noah in his lion costume (he insists on wearing it as pyjamas… and to the grocery store and day care…) with big tears in his eyes and traces of a runny nose above his upper lip. He has to be very careful to slide his arms from around Andy to get up and comfort his son, but just as he's about to slide away, Noah pokes Andy in the nose too.

She awakes with more of a startle, legs flailing and sitting upright immediately. He knows the moment she spots Noah's upset tells because she doesn't hesitate to throw the covers off of them, and kneel down on the floor on his level.

"Mamaaaaa." He cries, throwing his arms around her neck. She scoops him up and sits them on the edge of the bed, just rubbing his back until he can talk about whatever it is that brought him there. It's usually a nightmare, but with Noah it could be the fact that they wouldn't let him bring in the cat that was wandering outside two nights ago.

He's a bit of a wildcard. Definitely Andy's son.

As soon as Sam's got the pillows rearranged so that they can lay back and figure it all out so at least they can rest, he hears one of the twins start to fuss over the monitor. He hangs his head, because it's his turn and Andy's dealing with a kid crisis of her own.

Sam turns down the monitor and swings his legs out of bed, walking dead on his feet towards the nursery just two doors down from their room. If only it were ever empty, Bella and Noah could have separate rooms. But they made pretty great kids.

When he pushes the door open, he sees Ruby standing up, holding the railing of the crib, and her face streaked with tears too, and mouth hanging open ready to let out a cry.

"Everybody's having a bad night." Sam sighs, picking his baby girl up and walking over to the rocking chair in the corner before she can walk her sister. "What's the matter, huh? Did Sophie wake you up with that snoring?"

He glances over to his other baby girl, sleeping soundly in her own crib. Ruby calmed down almost the minute he picked her up, but had yet to doze off, and she was not a fan of being put down. So he rocked gently, humming a random tune, wishing she'd go back to sleep so that he could too.

He can hear Noah's sobbing begin to quiet, and thinks they're so close to being in the clear.

And then he hears another door open. Bella.

He hears her light little footsteps in the hallway, and then she pushes open the nursery door, and races toward Sam. He notices Boo standing in the door, up with the rest of the house, begging Sam with his eyes to get his kids under control so he too can go back to sleep.

"I woke up and Noah was gone." She says, eyes wide, obviously worried about her little brother.

"He's in our room with Mommy, he's fine. Go back to bed sweetheart." He urges her, but realizes it'll be futile until she sees for herself that Noah is okay.

She turns to leave him alone with the baby, but turns left out the door, towards the master. He wants to groan but wouldn't tempt fate, because he's sure that Ruby is out for good now.

So he puts her gently back in her crib, covering her body with a small green blanket, and kissing her on the forehead before leaving her and her sister be.

Returning to his room at long last, hoping Andy will have Noah and Bella ready to get own their way to bed, so he can too, he sees that he is wrong. Noah and Bella are piling into the middle of the bed, cozying up next to Andy. As much as Sam wants to be bothered by it, the sight warms his heart. His lion suit clad son, complete with hooded mane, and Bella in her white little night gown, burrowing together while Andy covers them with the comforter.

He smiles and shakes his head in disbelief that this is what their night has become, but he's okay. He's happy.

So he climbs in among the bodies, tickling whatever child is on his side, and finally collapsed, trying to get comfortable to drift off again. Bella turns toward him, using his chest as a pillow, and he glances over to Andy who's stroking Noah's hair and watching him find a restful sleep. Their eyes meet over their eldest children and then he closes his eyes, ready for sleep to come.

And just as he's about to find his dream state again, another whimper comes over the monitor. A fathers work is never done.


	56. Truck

Prompt: Are you still taking ficlet requests? Andy is very pregnant with the twins and as she and Sam are buckling Bella & Noah in for a road trip, they realize that the truck is no longer going to work for them? I'm not sure who will be the saddest.

* * *

After Sam and Andy have both kids loaded into the truck, ready to head out to another of Bella's soccer games, Andy waits to open her door as a realization dawns on her. Sam notices that his wife has come to a full stop, and her hand on her passenger side door, preventing him from helping her in next.

"Andy... are you okay?" He says, placing one hand on her shoulder and the other on her very, very swollen stomach, fearing that there's something wrong with the twins.

"No, no I'm fine." She smiles waving his hand off of her stomach, assuring him the babies are fine.

She sighs, staring at the truck that has carted their family around for years. That he had long before they barreled into his life. But they'd made so many memories.

Their first camping trip to North Bay, all their sing along's on weekend road trips, Noah's big jam incident of 2016. The way Bella and Noah would fight over the seat behind Sam and share looks and smiles in the rearview mirror...

Andy feels the tears welling up in her eyes, and she rubs her stomach, of course still excited about the additions to the family, just unprepared for the changes.

She sniffles, and wipes the mess of makeup bellow her eyes, and Sam doesn't ask her what's wrong just yet, he just rubs her back, trying to help her calm down a little. It's really just the hormones. With the twins, he's had to be twice as careful with certain topics, but having been through it twice before, he had navigated around the landmines pretty well.

"You sure you're okay?" He asks.

She shakes her head no, but is getting more and more choked up, no matter how hard she tries to tell herself it's okay.

"Sweetheart, do you need to stay home? Get a little rest?" He asks, rubbing the typically sore spot on her back.

"No! I don't need rest! I wanna watch my girl kick ass!" She says, offended... but unclear on why. "I just... The truck."

She says it like he's immediately supposed to understand, so when she notices the vacant look in his eyes, she gets a little exasperated.

"We have to get an SUV or something, and we're not gonna have the truck anymore." She cries, finally falling apart the last little bit.

Sam puts an arm around her and waits to see if she really needs a hug or if she doesn't want to be touched right now. When she lets her head fall onto his shoulder, he wraps his arms around her one hand still on her back and the other smoothing over her hair.

"Andy, it's going to be okay." He whispers, taking a look into the truck to see Noah and Bella having an animated discussion. "It's just a truck."

"No it's not." She wails a little, slipping her arms around his waist now, big belly causing a bit of discomfort in their hold.

He checks his watch behind Andy and thinks they can spare a minute more. And then after about thirty seconds later, she tells him the hug is putting pressure on her bladder, and he pulls away, still rubbing her arms on either side.

She pulls her bottom lip behind her teeth and furrows her brow staring at the door again, and then back to her husband.

"Please don't get a mini van."


End file.
